Supercars Championship leader Scott McLaughlin has carried on his dominant form taking both pole position and the race win on Saturday at Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia.
“I got a really good start, and managed to build a gap early,” commented McLaughlin. “I felt like we were reasonably strong in that early part of the race, and then some others went a little bit aggressive.
“We got back into the groove after the stop, and had a few dicey moments when we were dealing with traffic. That’s one of the things that makes racing around here so cool, the speed differentials can be unreal.
“It was a really nice day. When your car is that fast, you’ve got to really take advantage of it and we did that today. Big thanks to the team for giving me a great car, and helping me capitalise on a strong day.”
The race started with plenty of promise, following a strong qualifying session where McLaughlin took pole and his Shell V-Power Racing Ford team mate Fabian Coulthard third. Both got a good start, with McLaughlin leading and Coulthard taking second place at turn one.
McLaughlin took his pitstop on lap 20, and then settled in to run the final 30 laps to the flag. It was all about tyre management, and managing the gaps to those behind.
Some drivers took tyres late in the race, with podium getters Mark Winterbottom and Shane van Gisbergen the last cars to stop, before driving through the field using their fresher tyres.
“Qualifying was average (P12), we missed a little bit of pace and didn’t make it through to Q3 unfortunately and we did two runs in Q2, so that was a shame,” said van Gisbergen. “We made some big wholesale changes for the race thanks to the Autobarn Lowndes Racing car, they were quite a bit stronger than us and right away the car was quite different.
“It’s still not perfect, we still need to make it a bit better. We had good tyre life and decided to go long because of it and we came home strong at the end. It’s always fun when you have a tyre advantage, but those 10 laps where we hung out and didn’t pit were quite tough, but we came back strong.”
Coulthard sat strong in second position until his first stop on lap 21. Unfortunately, an issue in the stop lost him more than five-seconds, putting him back into the pack. He made up a few positions, however his tyres tapered off later in the race and he was passed by a some faster cars to eventually finish 9th.
McLaughlin now leads the Championship by 119 points.
The team is now second in the points, only six-points behind Red Bull Holden Racing.
Race 11 Perth Supersprint results
Pos Driver Car
1 Scott McLaughlin Ford Falcon FG/X
2 Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon FG/X
3 Shane van Gisbergen Holden Commodore ZB
4 Tim Slade Holden Commodore ZB
5 Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore ZB
6 Cameron Waters Ford Falcon FG/X
7 Will Davison Ford Falcon FG/X
8 Fabian Coulthard Ford Falcon FG/X
9 Nick Percat Holden Commodore ZB
10 Chaz Mostert Ford Falcon FG/X
11 Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore ZB
12 Scott Pye Holden Commodore ZB
13 James Courtney Holden Commodore ZB
14 Rick Kelly Nissan Altima
15 Simona de Silvestro Nissan Altima
16 Jack Le Brocq Holden Commodore ZB
17 David Reynolds Holden Commodore ZB
18 Anton De Pasquale Holden Commodore ZB
19 Garth Tander Holden Commodore ZB
20 Michael Caruso Nissan Altima
21 Todd Hazelwood Ford Falcon FG/X
22 James Golding Holden Commodore ZB
23 Richie Stanaway Ford Falcon FG/X
24 Lee Holdsworth Holden Commodore ZB
25 Andre Heimgartner Nissan Altima
DNF Tim Blanchard Holden Commodore ZB
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