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Darwin Supercars: De Pasquale wins tense Race 1

Anton De Pasquale won a tense opening heat of the Darwin Triple Crown from Will Davison and a fast-finishing Shane van Gisbergen.

Anton De Pasquale, Dick Johnson Racing

Anton De Pasquale, Dick Johnson Racing

Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

Polesitter Davison did enough to hold onto the lead at the first corner, only for De Pasquale to get a better run through the sweeping Turns 2, 3 and 4.

That set him up for a passing move into Turn 5, the two Shell Fords making light contact as De Pasquale grabbed the lead.

They ran in formation across the first stint, while van Gisbergen swiftly cleared Andre Heimgartner to settle into third.

The DJR cars served their stops for two tyres on Lap 18 (Davison) and 19 (De Pasquale) before resuming in the same order as before the stops.

Van Gisbergen then opted to run long, holding out until Lap 23 before taking a longer service for three new tyres.

The stop proved to be even longer than expected, an issue on the left-rear delaying the Kiwi as he rejoined back in seventh.

He did, however, have a significant grip advantage and wasted little time passing the likes of Scott Pye, Broc Feeney and Heimgartner.

With five laps to go van Gisbergen slipped past Chaz Mostert to reclaim third place, with leader De Pasquale less than three seconds down the road.

Two laps later he was all over the back of second-placed Davison, but that was as far as he could go. Davison's defence was robust enough to keep the Red Bull Holden at bay, and secure an eighth career victory for De Pasquale.

"It's awesome. It's always good to get a one-two," said De Pasquale.

"We came pretty close down at Turn 5 but we all came out the other side.

"Shane was coming pretty hard on the three tyres so I had to pick up the pace a little bit at the end. He made us work for it."

Mostert came home fourth from Heimgartner, while Mark Winterbottom ran long to jump teammate Scott Pye for sixth.

Cam Waters was the best-placed Tickford car in eighth while Feeney used an extreme undercut to good effect to bag ninth.

Darwin local Bryce Fullwood ran seventh for most of the first stint, but did so nursing a 15-second time penalty for punting David Reynolds off the track at the last corner on Lap 2. He served the penalty during his Lap 12 stop which dropped him down to 19th at the finish.

Chris Pither's hopes of converting his excellent qualifying performance of 11th into a race results were short-lived. The Kiwi was hit by Will Brown at Turn 5 on Lap 3 which sent both cars off the road.

Pither was able to get going again after a quick stop for repairs but could only finish 24th. Brown, meanwhile, limped back to the pits with a bent steering arm and didn't get back out.

Van Gisbergen continues to lead the series with a 272-point advantage over De Pasquale.

The Darwin Triple Crown continues with a pair of back-to-back qualifying sessions starting at 8:35am local time tomorrow.

Cla # Driver Car Time Gap Interval
1 11 Australia Anton De Pasquale
Ford Mustang GT 43'47.1156
2 17 Australia Will Davison
Ford Mustang GT 43'48.2986 1.1830 1.1830
3 97 New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen
Holden Commodore ZB 43'48.5940 1.4784 0.2954
4 25 Australia Chaz Mostert
Holden Commodore ZB 43'52.3713 5.2557 3.7773
5 8 New Zealand Andre Heimgartner
Holden Commodore ZB 43'53.7923 6.6767 1.4210
6 18 Australia Mark Winterbottom
Holden Commodore ZB 44'01.5208 14.4052 7.7285
7 20 Australia Scott Pye
Holden Commodore ZB 44'05.4326 18.3170 3.9118
8 6 Australia Cameron Waters
Ford Mustang GT 44'06.4942 19.3786 1.0616
9 88 Broc Feeney
Holden Commodore ZB 44'11.0450 23.9294 4.5508
10 5 Australia James Courtney
Ford Mustang GT 44'11.5208 24.4052 0.4758
11 99 Brodie Kostecki
Holden Commodore ZB 44'12.0567 24.9411 0.5359
12 56 Australia Jake Kostecki
Ford Mustang GT 44'12.5342 25.4186 0.4775
13 3 Australia Tim Slade
Ford Mustang GT 44'16.6945 29.5789 4.1603
14 34 Australia Jack Le Brocq
Holden Commodore ZB 44'20.6666 33.5510 3.9721
15 2 Australia Nick Percat
Holden Commodore ZB 44'20.6898 33.5742 0.0232
16 10 Australia Lee Holdsworth
Ford Mustang GT 44'21.1660 34.0504 0.4762
17 35 Australia Todd Hazelwood
Holden Commodore ZB 44'21.1930 34.0774 0.0270
18 27 Jayden Ojeda
Holden Commodore ZB 44'22.2530 35.1374 1.0600
19 14 Australia Bryce Fullwood
Holden Commodore ZB 44'22.4212 35.3056 0.1682
20 55 Australia Thomas Randle
Ford Mustang GT 44'26.2370 39.1214 3.8158
21 96 Australia Macauley Jones
Holden Commodore ZB 44'31.7588 44.6432 5.5218
22 78 Zak Best
Ford Mustang GT 44'45.8512 58.7356 14.0924
23 76 Australia Garry Jacobson
Holden Commodore ZB 44'49.1948 1'02.0792 3.3436
24 22 New Zealand Chris Pither
Holden Commodore ZB 44'40.4173 1 Lap 1 Lap
25 4 Australia Jack Smith
Holden Commodore ZB 44'23.1262 3 Laps 2 Laps
26 26 Australia David Reynolds
Ford Mustang GT 44'02.6954 7 Laps 4 Laps
9 Australia Will Brown
Holden Commodore ZB 2'26.6964 36 Laps 29 Laps

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