McLaughlin grabs third straight win
Mumbai in final
NEW Zealand’s Scott McLaughlin has continued his charge up the Supercars leaderboard by winning yesterday’s race at the Winton SuperSprint.
It was a superb drive by the 23-year-old from Hamilton, who drove an error free race and never got into any trouble.
He had been hampered by mechanical issues or mistakes earlier this season, but has shown in the two races in Perth a fortnight ago, plus this race in rural Victoria, that this season is his best opportunity yet to win the championship.
McLaughlin started the race on pole position, for the fifth time this year, a part of the race weekend where he’s been clearly the best driver this season.
He was able to hold off Chaz Mostert in the race to lead at the first corner, but it was a bad start from defending Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, who dropped from third to sixth over the opening lap.
He got past Nick Percat on the second lap though, pulling off an audacious overtaking manoeuvre.
On lap five a number of cars came in for pitstops, with McLaughlin doing likewise two laps later and rejoined the race in 16th place, while van Gisbergen was promoted into the lead.
Van Gisbergen came in on lap nine, but had a drama during his pitstop, with the right rear tyre taking a long time to put on, which cost him a few places and it was something he wasn’t able to recover from. Mostert had to come into the garage on lap 15 because of a tailshaft problem and wasn’t able to rejoin the race.
By the halfway point of the 40-lap race McLaughlin was in seventh place, but every car ahead of him hadn’t made a mandatory pitstop yet. Rick Kelly and Tim Slade collided on lap 25 and Slade was given a pitlane penalty for causing the incident.
By lap 30 all of the pitstops had been completed and McLaughlin was back in the lead and cruising through the final 10 laps to pick up the 150 championship points.
Jamie Whincup was second and Fabian Coulthard finished third, which means the Kiwi holds just a 10-point lead over McLaughlin in the championship.
Van Gisbergen came home eighth place and loses further ground to his two compatriots in the DJR Team Penske Fords, with 58 points less than Coulthard. GETTY IMAGES
‘‘I’ve got a fantastic car under me that pretty much drives itself, it’s an amazing car,’’ McLaughlin said after the race.
‘‘It’s great to have Fabs (Coulthard) on the podium too.
‘‘I don’t know what happened to Chaz, but it was going to be a good battle, so bad luck to him.’’
Coulthard said he tried as hard as he could to get past Whincup, but was happy with his third place finish.
‘‘We gave it our best shot,’’ he said. Cricket: Legspinner Karn Sharma and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah destroyed Kolkata Knight Riders by sharing seven wickets as Mumbai Indians stormed into the final of the Indian Premier League with a six-wicket victory yesterday. Sharma grabbed 4-16 off his legspin bowling while Bumrah took 3-7 as Knight Riders were bowled out for 107 in 18.5 overs. The only Kiwi involvement in the match came through allrounder Colin de Grandhomme, who made a golden duck in Kolkata’s dismal innings. Kolkata’s other New Zealander, Trent Boult, did not play, neither did Mitchell McClenaghan or Tim Southee for Mumbai. Two-time champions Mumbai meet the Rising Pune Supergiants in the final tomorrow.
‘ I’ve got a fantastic car under me. ’ SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN