While Chaz Mostert took his second victory of the Supercars season at the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint, Kiwi drivers Scott McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard and Shane van Gisbergen have continued to finish in the top five. The Prodrive Ford led home Scott McLaughlin and van Gisbergen following a final eight-lap sprint, with just 1.2s separating the podium finishers at the flag.
Jamie Whincup, Coulthard and Craig Lowndes ensured the Triple Eight and Shell V-Power cars filled the remainder of the top six, making the win all the sweeter for Mostert.
“We didn’t quite have the pace of Chaz, but we definitely had the pace of the Triple 8 guys, so this is almost like a win for us,” commented McLaughlin. “We need to keep doing that, keep adding to the points haul and take the chocolates when we can.”
A poor start for pole-sitter McLaughlin on the dirty side of the road had seen the #17 Ford drop to fifth at Turn 1 behind Mostert, Whincup, Coulthard and Mark Winterbottom.
“I’m frustrated about my start, which has been an issue all year. I’ll look at them again.”
McLaughlin immediately retook Winterbottom but then found himself stuck behind team-mate Coulthard and was called in for an early first stop on lap 11 of 65.
Mostert and Whincup reacted and pitted the following lap, trading places as the Red Bull Holden took on five litres less fuel.
Mostert stalked his rival through the middle stint and was just 1.3s behind when they again pitted together on lap 34, allowing the Ford to retake the place with its shorter fuel fill.
McLaughlin made his second stop two laps later and rejoined 1.5s adrift of Whincup, subsequently wrestling second from the Holden driver with 17 laps to go.
That left McLaughlin to chase down a 2.7s deficit to Mostert but the Saturday winner proved unable to make much headway until the Safety Car was called 12 laps from home.
The full course yellows were required to pick up debris left on the circuit from Nick Percat, who along with James Courtney and Garth Tander suffered a tyre failure in his third stint.
Just eight laps remained when the race restarted and Mostert was not to be denied, easing away from McLaughlin to take the victory.
Having run a long first stint, a late Safety Car was always going to play into the hands of van Gisbergen.
The reigning champion took Coulthard for fourth before Whincup pulled aside to give his Red Bull team-mate a shot at McLaughlin in the final three laps.
“I was pretty happy with my car in qualifying but that’s the best thing with our series, I was seventh but only a tenth off,” commented van Gisbergen. “In the race it was a decent first stint and we took the route of doing three equal stints like yesterday and were on track to finish fifth. Definitely the safety car helped us and got us a couple of spots there but just didn’t quite have enough to get to the front. The car was good but we were just a bit too far back.”
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Scott McLaughlin 1896
2. Jamie Whincup 1767
3. Fabian Coulthard 1663
4. Shane Van Gisbergen 1635
5. Chaz Mostert 1545
6. Mark Winterbottom 1335
7. Craig Lowndes 1317
8. David Reynolds 1221
9. Garth Tander 1212
10. Cameron Waters 1210
TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Shell V-Power Racing Team 3594
2. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Whincup/Van Gisbergen) 3402
3. Prodrive Racing Australia (Winterbottom/Waters) 2580
4. Garry Rogers Motorsport 2184
5. Brad Jones Racing 1794
6. Erebus Motorsport 1758
7. Nissan Motorsport (R. Kelly/T. Kelly) 1689
8. Walkinshaw Racing 1662
9. Prodrive Racing Australia (Mostert) 1545
10. Nissan NISMO (Caruso/De Silvestro) 1461
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