Anton De Pasquale has continued his domination of proceedings at Sydney Motorsport Park, winning the opening race of the BP Ultimate SuperSprint, leading home Shane van Gisbergen and Will Brown.
It was a chaotic race with several incidents over its 30 laps. The biggest of these was a clash between Tickford Racing drivers Cameron Waters and Jack Le Brocq; the latter spinning the former into the wall at turn eight following a rare safety-car period.
The two biggest talking points ahead of the start of the seventh sequential race at Sydney Motorsport Park were whether polesitter De Pasquale would be able to get a good start, and whether last weekend’s combatants Will Davison and Shane van Gisbergen would play nicely on the opening lap.
The first point was emphatically proven as the lights turned green; De Pasquale getting a quality jump off the line. Davison meanwhile found himself getting shuffled not by van Gisbergen but by Whincup. Davison had made a great start, too, but Whincup wasn’t willing to afford the Shell driver much room on the front straight; crowding Davison all the way to the inside pit wall.
It turned out to be a hectic opening lap. While De Pasquale drove off in the lead, Whincup and van Gisbergen almost tangled with each other coming out of turn two (mild contact exchanged) with Whincup winning the battle. Behind them, James Courtney spun from the mid-field following contact with Scott Pye, luckily only brushing the inside wall.
Once the race settled at the end of lap two, De Pasquale held a 1.4-second gap to Whincup, with van Gisbergen, Davison, Chaz Mostert, Brown, and Brodie Kostecki in tow.
Whincup’s early pace was enough to hold van Gisbergen at bay, with the Kiwi also holding a quiet third. The big battle was for fourth; Davison fending off Mostert, Brown, and a host of others in a train that included the rest of the top 10. After continuing to pile pressure on Whincup, van Gisbergen was eventually handed second place on a platter exiting turn two.
Waters, Andre Heimgartner, and Tim Slade were the first to make their pit-stops at the end of lap five. There weren’t many takers for pit-lane among the leaders in the early phase. Todd Hazelwood peeled off from the back end of the top 10 at the end of lap nine. Davison and Mostert were the first of the lead runners to stop, doing so on the following lap.
Whincup then stopped on lap 11 from third, but De Pasquale and van Gisbergen were resilient. The pace of those hanging out for longer was competitive, in part because of the cooler track temperatures caused by the cloudy conditions.
Nick Percat’s stop on lap 14 was one of the most eventful. Having held down a spot in the top 10 all race, a strong result would go begging for the BJR driver with an apparent right-front suspension issue. He would be pushed into the garage not long after.
De Pasquale and Brown finally stopped on lap 15, with Brown once again having his race marred by a poor pit-stop (in this case it was a slow installation of his front left wheel).
It was a strategic masterclass for Red Bull Ampol Racing. Whincup’s undercut saw him leap-front De Pasquale. The Mustang pilot had to deal with the seven-time champion for most of the lap, before finally getting him later in the lap. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen had finally stopped from the lead and, by virtue of Whincup’s blocking, he had grabbed the corrected lead.
Despite Red Bull’s efforts, De Pasquale was quickly able to bridge the gap to the Kiwi before getting past him into turn nine; van Gisbergen putting up minimal fight. De Pasquale had taken on four tyres, as opposed to the two that both Red Bull drivers had taken, giving him an edge for the run to the chequered flag.
Waters’ earlier stop saw him make a significant on-track gain, too, initially seeing him threatening Davison once he had processed his pit-stop. But, on his older tyres he soon faded off the back of Davison, with Mostert eventually grabbing the spot with a fairly big whack for Waters’ troubles.
A timely safety car hit just after the leaders’ completed their stops, caused by the stranded Walkinshaw Andretti United entry of Bryce Fullwood (alternator issues causing the stoppage). This eliminated the gaps throughout the pack, and put extra emphasis on both the cars that had taken on four tyres instead of just two, and the cars that had stopped early and would struggle.
With the race restarting with 11 laps remaining, De Pasquale and van Gisbergen led Whincup, Davison, Mostert, Waters, Hazelwood, Mark Winterbottom, Le Brocq, and Brodie Kostecki chasing in 10th. Whincup, Davison, Waters, and Winterbottom had the oldest tyres, and Le Brocq and Kostecki were packing four new tyres.
The rough tyre situation for Waters and the gun tyre situation for teammate Le Brocq came to a head at turn 10 off the restart.
While racing was relatively straightforward at the head of the pack, it was chaos at the bottom of the top 10. Struggling for pace, Waters copped a shove at 10 from Hazelwood, before getting an additional whack from Le Brocq, sending the Monster Mustang into the outside wall. Le Brocq ended up copping a pit-lane penalty for his troubles, while Water was able to resume three laps down.
With eight laps to go, De Pasquale had built a 1.8-second margin to van Gisbergen. Whincup was two seconds further adrift. Brodie Kostecki was the one to watch on his better tyre set. Having dispatched Davison, he had latched onto the back of Whincup with five laps to go. The pair were soon joined by Brown, himself recovering from that poor pit-stop.
With Kostecki struggling to make inroads, he let Brown past with four laps to go. Brown promised over the radio to hand the spot back to his teammate if he wasn’t able to get past Whincup, but that didn’t matter when he stole the final spot on the podium with ease at turn six.
De Pasquale, meanwhile, remained untouchable at the front of the pack; claiming victory with 1.8 seconds in hand over van Gisbergen, with Brown completing the podium 1.5 seconds further away. Whincup survived Kostecki’s attack to finish fourth.
The second half of the top 10 was filled with cars that benefited from the late safety car on sharper tyres. Pye finished sixth, ahead of Davison, a stellar Zane Goddard, Slade, and Heimgartner. Apart from Waters, Mostert was the other driver to be thwarted by the safety car. Having initially been on target for a top five, he finished up 11th.
Hazelwood, Winterbottom, Macauley Jones, Garry Jacobson, Fabian Coulthard, Jake Kostecki, Luke Youlden, Jack Smith, Le Brocq, Courtney, Waters, and Percat rounded out the finishers, with Fullwood the sole retirement.
