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Perth Supercars: McLaughlin wins as Penske dominates

Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard made light work of the first Supercars race of the weekend at Barbagallo Raceway, the DJR Team Penske pair cruising to an emphatic 1-2.

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske Ford

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske Ford

Daniel Kalisz / Motorsport Images

Scott Pye, Holden Racing Team
Rick Kelly, Nissan Motorsports
Cameron Waters, Prodrive Racing Australia
Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden
Garth Tander, Garry Rogers Motorsport
Scott Pye, Holden Racing Team
David Reynolds, Erebus Motorsport Holden
Craig Lowndes, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden
Nick Percat, Brad Jones Racing Holden
Nick Percat, Brad Jones Racing Holden

McLaughlin effectively led from start to finish, jumping Coulthard off the line and then controlling the race to take his first points-paying win for the team by 1.2s.

“The car was fantastic,” said McLaughlin. “It’s just been amazing, to do it 1-2 in front of Roger is pretty cool.”

Triple Eight driver Jamie Whincup was best of the rest, but finished more than seven seconds behind the two Penske Fords.

“Clearly the Penske guys have been working hard, they’re doing a good job,” he said. “We’ve got to work harder, clearly they’ve got better cars. Our crew, we’re going to group together and reel them in.”

The two DJR Team Penske Fords were unstoppable in the first stint, McLaughlin leading Coulthard as the pair streaked into the distance. It took just five laps to ease the gap out to 2.5s, and by Lap 10 it was over five seconds.

It wasn’t until Shane van Gisbergen let Jamie Whincup through into second on Lap 12 that the gap stabilised, the #88 Red Bull Holden hanging to within a little under eight seconds behind the lead pair.

It remained that way until Lap 22 when Coulthard and Whincup both dived into the pits to kickstart the pit cycle between the lead pack, McLaughlin following suit a lap later.

The order didn’t change, though. Despite catching his crew a little by surprise as he rolled into the lane, McLaughlin popped out in front of Coulthard. Whincup retained what effectively third spot, but now had Chaz Mostert on his tail, the Prodrive Ford having stopped a lap earlier.

Van Gisbergen and Winterbottom opted to go the other way, the Kiwi pitting on Lap 26 and coming out behind Mostert in fourth, while Winterbottom waited another three laps and was dumped to the back of the Top 10 – but with the freshest rubber for the run home.

With the stops out of the way the Penskes continued to fight it out at the front, McLaughlin leading by less than a second in the early stages of the stint while Whincup was more than eight seconds down the road.

And as the second stint wore on, little changed. McLaughlin had enough to hold off Coulthard for the win, while Whincup could pull away from the rest to secure the final spot on the podium.

Behind the top three things were a little more interesting. That early stop put the pressure on Mostert later in the race, van Gisbergen’s fresher rubber giving him a sniff of the back of the Prodrive Ford with 10 laps to go. Four laps later van Gisbergen got through, relegating Mostert to fifth with a well-executed move at the last corner.

Mostert then copped the same treatment from Winterbottom, who quickly worked his way past the likes of Will Davison, Craig Lowndes, and David Reynolds after the stops. With a couple of laps to go he used his rubber advantage to grab fifth from his teammate, and even got to within a second of van Gisbergen ahead of him.

Mostert finished sixth, while Lowndes nabbed seventh from Davison in the closing stages. Reynolds was ninth, with hometown star Garth Tander completing the Top 10.

Race 1 Results:

PosDriverCarGap
1 new_zealand Scott McLaughlin  Ford Falcon FG-X  
2 new_zealand Fabian Coulthard  Ford Falcon FG-X 1.300
3 australia Jamie Whincup  Holden Commodore VF 7.483
4 new_zealand Shane van Gisbergen  Holden Commodore VF 12.782
5 australia Mark Winterbottom  Ford Falcon FG-X 13.306
6 australia Chaz Mostert  Ford Falcon FG-X 17.960
7 australia Craig Lowndes  Holden Commodore VF 19.371
8 australia Will Davison  Holden Commodore VF 21.987
9 australia David Reynolds  Holden Commodore VF 24.105
10 australia Garth Tander  Holden Commodore VF 24.576
11 australia Todd Kelly  Nissan Altima 25.589
12 australia James Moffat  Holden Commodore VF 27.829
13 australia Tim Slade  Holden Commodore VF 31.372
14 australia Rick Kelly  Nissan Altima 34.956
15 australia Lee Holdsworth  Holden Commodore VF 37.949
16 australia Jason Bright  Ford Falcon FG-X 38.396
17 australia James Courtney  Holden Commodore VF 39.763
18 australia Michael Caruso  Nissan Altima 39.847
19 australia Scott Pye  Holden Commodore VF 39.918
20 australia Cameron Waters  Ford Falcon FG-X 39.930
21 australia Dale Wood  Holden Commodore VF 42.195
22 australia Nick Percat  Holden Commodore VF 44.945
23 switzerland Simona de Silvestro  Nissan Altima 46.828
24 australia Alex Rullo  Holden Commodore VF 1 lap
25 australia Matt Brabham  Holden Commodore VF 1 lap
26 australia Tim Blanchard  Holden Commodore VF 2 laps

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