Phillip Island Supercars: Coulthard wins bizarre opening race

In what was a bizarre race, Coulthard crossed the line second on the road and effectively under caution, before being elevated into first thanks to a post-race 15s penalty to Craig Lowndes.

It came after the early leader was pushed back into the midfield with a tyre failure, and gives the DJR Team Penske driver the championship lead.

“We went through our fair share of misfortune, but we had a good car, we had a fast car,” said Coulthard.

“It’s a never give up attitude. We just carried on, we made sure we dotted the Is, crossed the Ts, and we got the job done.”

As feared by the majority of the paddock, the new-specification soft compound Dunlop control tyre struggled throughout the race. There were 15 failures in total, with Prodrive Racing Australia worst hit with five seperate tyres letting go.

Coulthard led the early stages of the race, having jumped polesitter McLaughlin on the run to the first corner. It was a cagey first stint thanks to the tyre dramas, Coulthard ahead of McLaughlin, Winterbottom, van Gisbergen, and Whincup.

Coulthard’s reign at the front came to an end on Lap 19, though, when he became the first of the outright contenders to have a tyre let go. Just like in practice it was a right-front for the Kiwi, the tyre letting go through Turn 1 right after McLaughlin, Winterbottom, and vam Gisbergen had all elected to pit.

It meant a slow trundle back to the lane, and looked to have ruined his day.

McLaughlin then led from Winterbottom and van Gisbergen, before a Lap 23 Safety Car – called to clear tyre debris – saw strategies diverge, van Gisbergen and Winterbottom taking a second stop while McLaughlin and Whincup stayed out.

Not long after the restart the situation went from bad to worse for DJRTP, McLaughlin stung with a 15s penalty for crossing the fast lane line on his way into the pits. And five laps later Winterbottom and van Gisbergen were slapped with exactly the same penalty.

Van Gisbergen opted to take the hit straight away, diving into the pits from seventh spot for his final stop. A lap later Winterbottom did the same, jumping van Gisbergen as the pair remerged just outside the Top 10.

McLaughlin, however, continued to lead until Lap 40 when he pitted from behind the second Safety Car of the day – which meant he couldn’t serve the penalty. He had to pit again after the restart, his day well and truly done.

All the while Tander shuffled his way to the front. Having cycled through pitlane often enough behind the first Safety Car to satisfy the fuel drop, he was suddenly leading and good to go to the finish when the race was restarted on Lap 43.

The shambles shook out well for Coulthard as well, who was quickly into second after the restart and right on Tander’s tail.

On Lap 45 Coulthard cruised back into the lead at Honda. Craig Lowndes followed him through, and ultimately took the lead himself from Coulthard on Lap 47 – but having been smacked with the same 15s penalty as the likes of McLaughlin and van Gisbergen, he wasn’t actually a factor.

There was one final bit of drama on Lap 49 when Nick Percat suffered his second tyre failure of the day, clobbered into Alex Rullo, and brought out the Safety Car for the third time.

The race never got properly restarted, finishing with a simple sprint from the final corner to the flag with Lowndes leading on the road. He was then dumped down to 12th, while Coulthard was declared the winner ahead of Whincup and Tander.

Van Gisbergen fought his way back to fourth ahead of Caruso, Todd Kelly, Jason Bright, and Winterbottom.

McLaughlin, meanwhile, was classified 10th.

Lowndes wasn’t the only driver to be have to serve the 15s post-race. Simona de Silvestro took her best finish on road with sixth, but was filtered back to 13ththanks to her own pitlane infringement.

Race 1 Results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap
1	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	51	1:36'25.3805
2	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	51	1:36'26.3157	0.9352
3	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	51	1:36'26.4066	1.0261
4	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	51	1:36'29.1940	3.8135
5	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	51	1:36'29.4710	4.0905
6	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	51	1:36'29.7586	4.3781
7	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	51	1:36'30.0826	4.7021
8	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	51	1:36'31.7609	6.3804
9	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	51	1:36'33.8960	8.5155
10	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	51	1:36'34.7367	9.3562
11	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	51	1:36'34.8752	9.4947
12	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	51	1:36'38.3078	12.9273
13	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	51	1:36'44.3103	18.9298
14	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	50	1:36'26.8528	1 lap
15	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	50	1:36'30.4637	1 lap
16	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	50	1:36'31.6571	1 lap
17	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	50	1:36'32.8941	1 lap
18	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	50	1:36'33.3134	1 lap
19	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	50	1:36'33.8088	1 lap
20	3	Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	49	1:36'47.5100	2 laps
21	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	48	1:36'34.5967	3 laps
22	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	43	1:36'48.1516	8 laps
	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	51	1:39'01.3796	2'35.9991
	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	35	1:29'26.2178	16 laps
	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	10	16'48.1124	41 laps
	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	7	11'14.6583	44 laps