Repco Supercars Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen and yesterday’s winner Anton De Pasquale shared the glory in today’s two races at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Shell V-Power Racing’s De Pasquale again dominated qualifying for each race, setting pole for both as he continued his strong form from yesterday. His teammate Will Davison made it a clean-sweep of the front row, while Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki backed up stablemate Will Brown’s the previous night to be third alongside leading Red Bull Ampol Racing driver Jamie Whincup.
Rounding out the 10 were Nick Percat, van Gisbergen, Andre Heimgartner, Chaz Mostert, Brown and Tim Slade.
In Qualifying for Race 22, it was a replication of the front row for last night’s event as Brown fell 0.392s short of De Pasquale’s effort, while it was an all-Red Bull Ampol Racing line-up behind with Whincup edging van Gisbergen.
Kostecki, Davison, Mark Winterbottom, Todd Hazelwood, Percat and Mostert completed the top 10.
Title contender Cam Waters was only 13th in last night’s Race 20 and qualifying was no better leaving him mid-pack for both events.
Race 21 was a heartbreaker for Shell V-Power Racing Team as first De Pasquale failed to get away cleanly off the start, dropping numerous positions in the process. This gave teammate Davison the lead, however an electrical fault forced a delayed pit entry and stop, with no dash display or communication.
This allowed van Gisbergen to take advantage as he took a narrow win from Davison and Percat.
De Pasquale finished fifth, behind Kostecki, leaving Slade in sixth followed by Whincup, Mostert, Heimgartner and David Reynolds.
A late challenge from Brown failed to stop De Pasquale’s recovery as he added another victory in the weekend’s finale.
It wasn’t without worry as after De Pasquale’s pit stop it was revealed the right-rear tyre was delaminating, but this didn’t halt his pace.
Brown pitted later in the race setting up a close tussle, but fell 1.262s short as Whincup finished third ahead of van Gisbergen.
Following, Davison led Waters, Mostert, Jack Le Brocq, Slade and Winterbottom across the line.
After the opening three races of a four-week stint at Sydney Motorsport Park, van Gisbergen holds a 338-point lead from teammate Whincup as Davison moves into third a further 125-points in arrears.
Mostert is fourth, while the biggest loser out of the weekend was Waters, who dropped from third to fifth.
De Pasquale, Percat, Winterbottom, Brown and Kostecki conclude the top 10.
The Repco Supercars Championship continues next week at Sydney Motorsport Park. For an overview of each weekend CLICK HERE.