CHAOTIC ISLAND
THE Supercars round at Phillip Island, near Melbourne, descended into farce yesterday as tyre trouble and a series of pitlane penalties upset the natural order.
Despite suffering his own blowout, Fabian Coulthard’s superior pace earned the DJR Team Penske man a race win to put him on top of the championship standings.
A review has been ordered into the tyre madness after 11 drivers were hit by 15 blowouts across the 250km race. Adding to the chaos, eight drivers were served pit-lane penalties for straying too close to garages on entry.
Front-runners Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom were among the affected eight, left seething when zealous officials dished out 15-second penalties.
Jamie Whincup, Garth Tander and van Gisbergen – who all avoided tyre trouble – rounded out the top four.
The incidents began on lap one, when David Reynolds surfed through the grass on the inside of the track and returned to the tarmac, scattering five cars into the gravel.
Then came the tyre carnage.
The weight of blowouts alone brought a lengthy safety car delay just to allow stewards to clean up pieces of rubber and debris from the track.
In the garage, nervous team engineers chased answers as they reset their vehicles.
“We’re a bit perplexed as to what the problem might be,” DJR Team Penske managing director Ryan Story said.
Nissan team manager Scott Sinclair saw three of his cars impacted, telling Fox Sports: “we’ve just got to get to the end”.
The sport will combine with tyre supplier Dunlop to conduct “a full investigation into the tyre issues from yesterday’s race”, according to Supercars sporting and technical director David Stuart.
Coulthard said it was about hanging tough.
“We went through our fair share of misfortunes – it was certainly not the way we wanted to win a race under safety car,” he said.
Whincup earned second place after staying drama-free.
“There were bets going on pit lane with how many (tyres) would be blown,” he said.
“We didn’t have any pace but we didn’t make any mistakes and we got rewarded with a podium.”