It was a very strong day for Shell V-Power Racing Team, with a 1-2 finish for Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard that clinched the Teams’ Championship after Triple Eight Race Engineering had an incident filled day.
“I’m stoked for everyone at Shell V-Power Racing, to take the very first win in Newcastle and to have Fabs (Coulthard) in second right alongside me on the podium is incredible,” commented McLaughlin! “And to wrap the Teams’ Championship up is just amazing. What a day. Now to focus, and hopefully finish the job tomorrow.”
McLaughlin started from the pole position, got a strong start and led the first section of the race. His main Championship rival Jamie Whincup was in the fence with steering damage on lap 1, limping back to the garage to be repaired and finish the race 13 laps down on the leaders.
“It was a really disappointing day and I take full responsibility for what happened,” commented Whincup. “I shouldn’t have been up the inside of car 23 on Lap 1. You make contact all year – it was wrong place, wrong time and then boom I smashed the steering hard into the wall – it was basically the end of our day.
“I’m disappointed and I haven’t made a mistake in a really long time but end of the day I will never say die, I will come out fighting tomorrow and see what we can salvage. The crew did an amazing job, they always do and this time they got the car out quickly. There’s so many elements to motorsport and we got most of them right but unfortunately today it came down to my errors – I just made one at the wrong time.”
McLaughlin settled in for the middle section of the race behind Shane van Gisbergen, before the final pit-stops played out. He leapt into a net second place, before passing David Reynolds to take the lead, and was never headed.
Coulthard started 8th, and gained spots immediately off the start. He was hamstrung by double-stacking in pit lane across his first two stops, which pushed him down the order. He fought back each time, and was fourth on the road late in the race before a coming together between then second placed Reynolds and Van Gisbergen, which allowed him to pass them and complete a Shell V-Power Racing Team 1-2 finish.
“It was a very good day for the team, and I’m wrapped for Scotty,” commented Coulthard. “I double-stacked twice in my first two pit stops which made is a hard day, but to be able to deliver the Teams’ Championship and a 1-2 finish with Roger Penske, Tim Cindric and everyone in town was very cool. The team have given us great cars, and we can do good things with them.”
McLaughlin has re-assumed the Drivers’ Championship lead, 78 points in front of Whincup, with 150 points up for grabs in the final race of the season tomorrow. Coulthard remains third, now only 80 points behind Whincup.
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