Darwin Supercars: Coulthard mistake hands McLaughlin victory
Scott McLaughlin cruised to a fifth season win in the second heat of the Darwin Triple Crown, after an early challenge from teammate Fabian Coulthard was thwarted by a costly mistake.
The race started out as a battle between the two Penske Fords, Coulthard getting the better launch to lead McLaughlin into Turn 1.
Coulthard then had the pace to gap the points leader by the best part of a second, before pitting for fresh softs on the right-hand side of his car on Lap 6.
At that point McLaughlin dropped the hammer, a scorching in-lap helping him take on two tyres himself and emerge just in front of Coulthard.
While Coulthard may have had the tyre temperature to re-claim the lead, he threw that opportunity away by locking up and running wide as he followed McLaughlin into Turn 1, which dropped him back to third behind Jamie Whincup.
That was effectively job done for McLaughlin, with an easy run home to bank a fifth race win of the season.
"I'm glad we could bounce back," said McLaughlin, referencing his penalty yesterday.
"Great start by Fabs; it was like my best start I've done for a long time, but he absolutely smashed me. Big in-lap, the boys' pitstop was amazing, got in front, and then I saw Fabs run wide. I got a bit lucky there, but overall I'm really proud."
While he had no answer for McLaughlin, Whincup was able to gap Coulthard as the race went on. He finished up a lonely second, 1.4s behind a cruising race winner, and almost 6s clear of third.
Coulthard was equally lonely by the finish, his gap back to fourth more than 5s.
The battle for fourth was significantly closer, with Shane van Gisbergen and David Reynolds doing battle in the closing stages.
Reynolds was the only driver not to make an early stop, the Erebus driver holding the on-track lead for much of the race thanks to a long first stint.
He finally pitted 10 laps from home, coming out in sixth behind van Gisbergen and Nick Percat. With the better rubber Reynolds was able to clear Percat, but couldn't find a way past van Gisbergen as the pair staged a tense nose-to-tail battle to the flag.
Percat was sixth after dropping back to Race 1 winner Anton De Pasquale in the closing stages, with Chaz Mostert, Cam Waters and Andre Heimgartner rounding out the Top 10.
Darwin Triple Crown - Race 2 results:
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 |  Scott McLaughlin | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.415 |
| 2 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.441 |
| 3 | 99 |  Anton De Pasquale | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.676 |
| 4 | 88 | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.715 |
| 5 | 8 | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.728 |
| 6 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.755 |
| 7 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.839 |
| 8 | 9 | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.862 |
| 9 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.895 |
| 10 | 25 | Chaz Mostert | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.897 |
| 11 | 20 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.899 |
| 12 | 44 | James Courtney | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.904 |
| 13 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.924 |
| 14 | 15 | Rick Kelly | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.994 |
| 15 | 55 | Jack Le Brocq | Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.034 |
| 16 | 3 | Macauley Jones | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.105 |
| 17 | 5 | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.141 |
| 18 | 19 | Alex Davison | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.212 |
| 19 | 22 | Chris Pither | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.265 |
| 20 | 34 | Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.306 |
| 21 | 14 | Todd Hazelwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.324 |
| 22 | 35 | Garry Jacobson | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.367 |
| 23 | 2 | Bryce Fullwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.473 |
| 24 | 4 | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.741 |
| View full results | ||||
Darwin Supercars: McLaughlin clean sweeps Sunday poles
2020 Supercars Darwin Triple Crown race results
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