Mostert wins as blowouts again blight Supercars

Chaz Mostert and his Prodrive Racing Ford team survived more tyre drama to win yesterday’s V8 Supercars race at Phillip Island.

After twice suffering tyre blowouts on Saturday, Mostert and his team got the balance right between being fast but also preserving his rubber to take his first victory of the season from teammate Mark Winterbottom. Erebus Racing's Dave Reynolds finished third after a superb drive.

The one-two finish is a massive boost to the Ford outfit, which has been playing catch-up to Red Bull Racing and Shell V-Power Racing so far this season. Mostert moves to third in the championship as a result of his first race win since 2015.

“It is a credit to all the guys behind me,” the 25-year-old said. “After blowing two right rears [on Saturday], they turned this car upside down. The whole win is on those guys.”

The podium for Winterbottom also breaks a run of poor results for the 2015 champion.

It was a tough weekend for the three Kiwis in the field. Scott McLaughlin was the best of them, finishing 14th despite looking like he had the fastest car. He was caught out with strategy and couldn't recover late in the race.

Red Bull Holden Racing was one of the only teams to avoid tyre dramas on Saturday but within the space of a lap both Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup had right rear tyres explode. The Kiwi finished 16th, with Whincup 18th.

Late in the race, the third car in the stable, driven by Craig Lowndes, had his right front blow as well.

Championship leader Fabian Coulthard also had problems. The Shell V-Power Racing driver was handed a drive-through penalty for failing to stop at a red light when reentering the track during a safety car intervention. He had to settle for 17th.

“We thought we were pretty good on tyres so we went in [yesterday] pretty confident,” van Gisbergen said. “It was average racing going like that going into every corner wondering when the tyre was going to pop.”