Mostert makes the most to master rain
AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK (AUS) 5-6 MARCH ROUND 1/13
Chaz Mostert leads the Supercars Championship for the first time in his career following the opening round of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park. The Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden driver took a third and a win from the two 300km races on an unpredictable weekend affected by wet weather in Western Sydney.
Despite the constant threat of rain it was all dry running on Saturday, which initially looked to play into the hands of form SMP driver Anton De Pasquale. His Dick Johnson Racing Ford comfortably topped qualifying and easily beat the Triple Eight Holden of Shane van Gisbergen in the Shootout.
In Saturday night’s race, however, he was undone by a roll of the strategic dice by Triple Eight. The team decided to try van Gisbergen on a three-stop strategy, the additional grip from a fourth set of tyres easily making up the time of the extra stop. That meant De Pasquale had to settle for second ahead of fast-finishing Mostert.
On Sunday the rain became a real factor, which helped Mostert to provisional pole. But running last in the Shootout was bad news, worsening conditions leaving Mostert seventh on the grid as Brodie Kostecki (Erebus Holden) took a career-first pole.
The race started in dry conditions, Kostecki and De Pasquale initially duking it out at the front. That was until a welltimed safety car brought Mostert into the game just after he’d moved to the supersoft tyre, which helped him into a lead he would hold until the end, despite a late rain storm. Kostecki and De Pasquale were second and third, De Pasquale crashing on the cool-down lap while trying to drift his Mustang around the last corner.
Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, finished sixth despite having at one point been a lap down due to an early off in greasy conditions and a poor decision to switch to wets too early in the race. He managed to unlap himself with smart use of the super-soft and some handy timing on safety cars, before charging back through the field, particularly once the poor weather properly arrived.