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