It was a strong race for the Shell V-Power Racing Team today at the Australian Grand Prix, with the Fords of Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard starting from the front row. McLaughlin eventually winng from Jamie Whincup with Coulthard third.
“It’s a monkey off the back to get the first win of the year under the belt,” commented McLaughlin. “That podium after the race was so cool, I’ve never had the national anthem played on the podium before so that was a great feeling. Looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.”
McLaughlin started well and lead from the start, defending from a charging Whincup at Turn 1 to maintain the lead until his first stop on Lap 12. A slightly slow pitstop allowed Whincup, who stopped one lap earlier, to undercut McLaughlin.
McLaughlin rejoined 1.5s behind Whincup, and then spent the next four laps chasing him down before he slid past Whincup with a fantastic move into the lead through Turn 4. McLaughlin then drove away to take victory by 1.3s from Whincup.
“In the race today, we gave ourselves every opportunity,” commented Whincup. “We pushed hard, we were aggressive on strategy and we did everything to win the race but like always, and we want it to, it came down to the quickest car today. We weren’t the quickest car, we were second quickest and we’ll work on trying to be faster for tomorrow.”
Coulthard started well, and slotted into third position. He was challenged by Shane van Gisbergen early, but maintained his position and good work in the pit lane kept him in third place on the track. He was chasing Whincup down over the last few laps, but ran out of time to make a pass, finishing one-second behind. The result sees Coulthard jump to 15th as he recovers from a difficult opening round in Adelaide.
Fourth home was Shane van Gisbergen who continues to lead the championship. “I’m stoked that we made some progress and, in the race with the most points, we got a good result. From now on, it just gets harder and harder with our grids so we’re going to have to push pretty hard.”
The win has pushed McLaughlin into third position on the points table. The team now sits fourth in the Teams’ points, 82 off the lead. Tomorrow will see the team compete in Races 4 and 5 of the Championship, with Race 4 starting at 12:40pm local time.
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Shane van Gisbergen 380
2. David Reynolds 322
3. Scott McLaughlin 307
4. Chaz Mostert 290
5. James Courtney 286
6. Garth Tander 246
7. Scott Pye 236
8. Mark Winterbottom 219
9. Cameron Waters 219
10. Craig Lowndes 218
15. Fabian Coulthard 185
TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Triple Eight Race Engineering 574
2. Walkinshaw Andretti United 522
3. Tickford Racing (Winterbottom/Mostert) 509
4. Shell V-Power Racing Team 492
5. Erebus Motorsport 434
6. Brad Jones Racing 378
7. Garry Rogers Motorsport 322
8. NISMO 293
9. Tickford Racing (Waters/Stanaway) 256
10. Nissan Motorsport 253
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