Coulthard wins amid chaos at Phillip Island
NEW Zealand’s Fabian Coulthard won a farcical first race at this weekend’s Phillip Island 500, with more than half of the cars suffering from tyre failures and others hit by pitlane penalties.
About 15 of the cars had tyres falling off wheels with the tyres clearly not up to the pressure they were under on the tight circuit.
It became a survival of the fittest, with drivers as concerned about keeping four tyres on their cars as they were to overtake each other.
But although the cars went slower over the second half of the race there was more drama with about 10 cars given 15-second penalties, including Kiwis Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen.
Coulthard looked down and out midway through the race, but he drove superbly towards the end of it for back to back wins in the category.
In qualifying earlier in the day it was a New Zealand one-twothree at the front of the grid.
McLaughlin set a new lap record to claim pole with a time of 1:29.36 around the 4.45km track, breaking the record set just before by team-mate Coulthard.
Third on the grid was van Gisbergen, with 2015 Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom the fourth fastest.
It was the Australian who had the best start, moving up to second, with McLaughlin dropping to third and Coulthard taking the lead.
McLaughlin was able to get past Winterbottom a few laps in, when the Prodrive Racing Australia ran wide at a corner.
As the race continued, back markers like Nick Percat, Garth Tander and Dale Wood ran into an assortment of issues, while there was little in the way of action up front.
McLaughlin came in for his pitstop on lap 19 and while he was taking on fuel, the front right tyre on Coulthard’s car came off, which looked to have ruined his chance of winning the race and he came out of the pits in 16th place.
So much tyre debris was on the track that on lap 23 the safety car had to come out so that the circuit could be cleared.
The cars completed five laps behind the safety car and soon after the resumption McLaughlin was handed a 15-second penalty for a pitlane entry infringement from his earlier stop.
McLaughlin was punished for pulling into his pit box too early, coming off the fast lane and into the working lane in the pits. Winterbottom and van Gisbergen were also given the same penalty.
McLaughlin carried on in the lead, but went in for more fuel during the second safety car stint and when racing began again on lap 42 it was Garth Tander in the lead, with Coulthard lurking in fourth place.
Four more cars, including Mark Horsburgh, EDGE PHOTOGRAPHY Craig Lowndes, were given the same penalty as McLaughlin a couple of laps later, while on lap 45 Coulthard had worked his way back into the lead.
Lowndes was actually leading, but his penalty ruled him out of winning.
A safety car came out for the third time when Percat hit Alex Rullo and there was no further racing because as it was a time certain event, the race had to finish seven laps early.
Jamie Whincup finished second and Tander was third.
Van Gisbergen finished fourth and McLaughlin was 10th.
The result puts Coulthard into the lead in the championship, with 10 points more than van Gisbergen.