Davison cool on teammate contact

The pair secured a one-two finish for Dick Johnson Racing in the opening heat of the Supercars Darwin Triple Crown this evening.

The defining moment of the race came on the opening lap when De Pasquale, who started second, dived under Davison at Turn 5 to grab a lead he would hold until the finish.

The move wasn't entirely clean, though, De Pasquale and Davison making light contact at the turn-in point of the right-hander.

Speaking post-race, Davison admitted that he wasn't expecting contact on the way into the corner and had hoped they could run side-by-side so he could have the inside line into Turn 6.

However he also stressed that he had no qualms about De Pasquale's move, which was set up by a high line through Turn 1.

"Anton pulled off a great move, what can I say?" Davison said.

"I actually led into the first corner and I thought, 'maybe I'm on here', and then he pulled off the major dive around the outside [of Turn 1].

"It's tricky with your teammate, side-by-side through a corner like that. You don't really want to be touching so I gave him room and he did a good job hanging on the outside.

"And down into [Turn] 5 I thought maybe I could hang on the outside, then there was a little bit of contact. No big deal, we just have to have a look at what happened there. I wasn't expecting it.

"It's just what happens at closer quarters through there, the cars are moving and sliding and bouncing around. We just got a bit tangled. There wasn't anything in it more than that."

Davison added that had it not been his teammate next to him he would have been more aggressive in trying to get the other car off line through Turn 1.

But he says once De Pasquale got a decent run out of one, he was a sitting duck for Turn 5.

"There's nothing I could have done at [Turns] 2, 3, 4, that's 200-plus kay an hour there side-by-side," he explained. "You've got a bit going on there just to keep yourself on the track.

"Turn 1, anyone else I could have run it in a bit harder and had a little bit of contact just to get him in the marbles. But you don't want to be touching with your teammate.

"He held it well there in the mid-track, there's often a bit of marbles there. But he was able to hold really good mid-corner speed through Turn 1 and I was boxed in and couldn't do much. Kudos to Anton, it was a great move."

The one-two result came in a milestone race for Davison, the veteran making his 500th Supercars start.

He's confident he could have enjoyed a milestone win, too, had he been able to hold De Pasquale off on that first lap.

"As we saw there wasn't anything in it from that point between us," he said.

"We were going to ultimately work together so we knew the start was crucial. Then we were going to settle in and make sure we both managed out tyres.

"From that point on we were managing very similar pace. That's what's important these days, leading that first corner. And it wasn't my day."

The Darwin Triple Crown continues with two more races tomorrow.