Supercars Race 30 Recap
McLaughlin has crowned the Supercars Champion elect after claiming his 21st podium of the season with P2, while Coulthard finished well inside the top 10 in P8.
Having taken a clean sweep of pole positions, McLaughlin again started P1 for the final race of The Bend SuperSprint. Coulthard had another solid qualifying session as well and started in P5.
Lining up next to McLaughlin on the front row, Waters was quick off the start line and took the outside line through turn 1 which saw him take control of the race. McLaughlin was left to hold off Whincup and slot into P2. Meanwhile, Coulthard dropped one place on the opening lap, but on lap 3, he made up the place he lost as passed Mostert.
Again, Coulthard was the first of the Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustangs to stop for fresh tyres on lap 8. On the exit, Coulthard had Courtney just ahead, but after crossing the speed limit line he fired around him as Courtney struggled to accelerate.
McLaughlin followed Waters into pit lane on lap 9, but the No. 17 wasn’t able to jump him during the stop. They rejoined the race with Whincup thundering down the straight hoping to get past, but he wasn’t fast enough, and they resumed the order of Waters, McLaughlin, Whincup.
With all stops completed and 11 laps remaining, McLaughlin was still in P2 with Waters ahead and Whincup behind. Coulthard was in P7 with van Gisbergen behind, but with fresher tyres, van Gisbergen moved past Coulthard dropping him to back to P8. Their positions remained unchanged to the flag with McLaughlin finishing P2 and Coulthard P8.
McLaughlin is now 305 points ahead of Whincup and is the Supercars Champion elect. Coulthard is on 1560 points and in P7. The Shell V-Power Racing Team is 100 points ahead of Triple 8 in the Teams’ Championship standings.
<<Coulthard Quote>>
“We qualified well in both sessions and were having a good run in the first race today, but unfortunately the mechanical failure put us out of that race. I was running P2 and a 1-2 would have been nice, and would have made Scott’s run for the championship a little bit easier.”
“I came through I think turn 8, and on the downshift into 6th, it felt like there was a little bit of movement within the gearbox. When I came through turn 8, I went on the throttle and there was just no drive, so I had no option but to leave the circuit.”
“All-in-all, not a bad weekend but I just didn’t get the results to show for it. But we were fortunate after the first race today to get the car fixed and out for the second one.”
<<McLaughlin Quote>>
“It was a fantastic day for us and a pretty solid weekend. The two poles today helped our whole cause and the championship.”
“It was a bit unfortunate for Jamie in the first race as it allowed us to be in a position to be able to capture the championship today, and we managed to do that.”
“It really makes our job a lot nicer for Bathurst as we have fewer things to worry about and we can just focus on the biggest race of the year. I’m really looking forward to that.”
