McLaughlin makes flying start
last four races at the Adelaide 500, but his cause wasn’t helped yesterday by starting the race just fifth on the grid and he never got the opportunity to challenge McLaughlin.
It was compatriot Fabian Coulthard who surprisingly grabbed pole position and he was joined on the front row by Whincup, with McLaughlin the third quickest in the top 10 shootout earlier in the day.
But it was McLaughlin who got into the lead by the first corner, diving inside Coulthard to poke the nose of his Mustang in front.
What made it worse for Coulthard was that he was adjudged to have jumped the start and given a 10-second pit lane penalty.
The race then settled down with the order after 11 laps being McLaughlin, Whincup, van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters, who had to manage without his cool suit working. Coulthard’s penalty had dropped him down to 22nd place, but despite being second to last, Coulthard had plenty of speed in his Mustang and worked his way through the field.
Waters had to get out of his car and head into his garage on lap 22, to try to cool down and it ruined any chance he had of a good finish.
McLaughlin went into the pits a lap later and came out in fourth, but only behind cars that hadn’t taken on fuel yet.
On lap 40 Chaz Mostert tried to overtake van Gisbergen to move up to third place, but he went into a corner too fast and when he slammed on the brakes, the Kiwi was able to pick the right line to stay on front.
However, Mostert wasn’t going to give up, he kept the pressure on the 2016 Supercars champion and had another crack nine laps later, yet made a similar mistake, which allowed Will Davison to move up into fourth.
Whincup came in for his final stop before McLaughlin, but the Kiwi was able to refuel a on lap 51 without being undercut.
There was no thrilling finish to the race as McLaughlin had a handy cushion over Whincup that he never looked like relinquishing.
Coulthard, who had one of the more eventful races of the day, picked up a handy amount of points, by placing sixth and will be looking for a better result today.
Meanwhile, Kiwi driver Andre Heimgartner finished 12th, while fellow Kiwi Richie Stanaway in his first race for Garry Rogers Motorsport placed 18th.