First win of season for McLaughlin
MELBOURNE: New Zealander Scott McLaughlin’s Supercars season has liftoff after a dogged firstup win at the Australian Grand Prix.
Starting from pole, McLaughlin had control of yesterday’s opening race of round two, before Jamie Whincup’s garage team stole the lead for the seventime champion with a superior pit stop at the Melbourne street circuit.
McLaughlin fought back with a sharp passing move on lap 17 to reclaim the lead and his first victory of the new year.
The manoeuvre will not have erased the 24yearold’s painful memories of last season, when he lost the championship to Whincup in the final moments of the last race of the year.
But it showed he could be a strong contender in the 2018 title race.
The win lifted him from fifth to third overall.
‘‘I’m stoked,’’ he said, sweating after coping with track temperatures above 40degC.
‘‘It was an awesome battle, me and Jamie. We always battle hard and fair.’’
Whincup finished second, ahead of McLaughlin’s DJR Team Penske teammate Fabian Coulthard.
McLaughlin’s win denied a hattrick of seasonopening wins for the new Commodore ZB and the Red Bull Holden Racing Team after Shane van Gisbergen swept the Adelaide 500.
Whincup is in fine shape for a terrific meeting at Albert Park despite the hiccup.
The seventime champion began the season with a DNF in Adelaide and arrived in Melbourne sitting an unprecedented 18th in the championship.
With two pole positions to come, Whincup is favourite to claim the Larry Perkins trophy for most points earned at the meeting, and should surge further in the standings from his improved position of 11th.
Chaz Mostert pulled off the highlight of the race, overtaking Scott Pye after a series of moves around the back of the street circuit to finish fifth.
Michael Caruso was the field’s biggest mover, leaping 10 places to finish 14th.
Nissan’s Simona De Silvestro came off secondbest in a shunt with firstseason talent Jack Le Brocq, forced out of the race after three laps.
The Supercars will race twice today, either side of Formula One qualifying, with a final race early tomorrow afternoon. — NZN