Sydney Supercars: De Pasquale wins opener

The Dick Johnson Racing ace made light work of the first 32-lapper of the weekend, turning pole into a lights-to-flag win.

Shane van Gisbergen, who made good early headway from sixth on the grid, did his best to challenge De Pasquale with an overcut strategy.

But even stopping four laps later didn't give him the pace to run De Pasquale down in the second stint, De Pasquale banking his second win in DJR colours to the tune of 5s.

"That was good, it was good fun," said De Pasquale. "It's always fun at night. It was quite a good battle with Will [Davison] into Turns 1 and 2 and there guys delivered me an awesome car. It was good to convert this one."

Behind van Gisbergen there was a thrilling late battle for the last spot on the podium.

Nick Percat found himself running third mid-way through the second stint, but under significant pressure from Erebus pair Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, who had both taken on four new tyres rather than two during their stops.

Percat's stubborn defence held out until the penultimate lap when Kostecki finally found his way past, demoting the #8 BJR Holden to fourth place.

Percat did manage to hold off Brown, who was unlucky not to be well clear in third place based on his opening stint.

The rookie had run second until late in the first stint when he was passed by van Gisbergen, and then lost more pace in his stop when a crew member dropped a wheel nut.

Fighting back to fifth was, in that context, an impressive effort.

Chaz Mostert finished sixth ahead Will Davison. The #17 DJR driver actually made the best start out of any of the front-runners, but with nowhere to go past De Pasquale and Brown on the first lap ran wide.

That cost him critical momentum, Davison swiftly losing a heap of places and never finding his way back to the front group. 

David Reynolds finished eighth, Jamie Whincup ninth and Tim Slade 10th.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT
2	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	5.160
3	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	10.389
4	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	10.964
5	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	11.677
6	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	16.936
7	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	18.520
8	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	22.594
9	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	22.812
10	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	27.516
11	19	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	36.615
12	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	37.137
13	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	37.958
14	14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	38.593
15	7	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	38.798
16	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	41.790
17	22	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	43.893
18	2	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	45.062
19	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	45.233
20	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	45.382
21	5	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	45.573
22	44	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	53.909
23	34	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	56.952
24	35	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'00.729
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