Pye apologised to De Pasquale for Darwin clash
Scott Pye says he apologised to Anton De Pasquale for their Turn 1 contact in Darwin immediately after the race.
Photo by: Edge Photographics
Pye clattered into the back of De Pasquale at the first turn on the opening lap, having tried to follow Shane van Gisbergen through on the pole-sitter.
The contact left De Pasquale facing the wrong-way, which triggered a pile-up that included Mark Winterbottom, Fabian Coulthard, Todd Hazelwood, Jack Smith and Garry Jacobson.
Pye managed to get going again but his race was ruined, his final position a lowly 21st after serving a drive-through penalty.
Straight after the race Pye went to apologise to De Pasquale for the contact, taking full blame for what happened.
"First of all I wanted to go and apologise for wrecking Anton," he told Motorsport.com.
"It's hard there on the dust. You're committed on the braking and then you try and re-apply more.
"[Van Gisbergen and De Pasquale] both had a little gap on me, maybe not as big as I thought, but once Shane passed him there was a gap between us. I think maybe Anton was looking at a switchback, I didn't realise that until I saw the replay. I think that's why was a little bit slower and I couldn't pull it up.
"I clipped that apex kerb and that was it, I took him out. At the end of the day it was an error from me."
Pye said the incident was made significantly more painful by the fact he had a front-running car under him.
"I'm so apologetic to the team," he added. "I spent half that race saying sorry on the radio.
"It's so hard, they've given me a car that could have won that race. I don't know if I'm good enough to have won that race, but the car was good enough.
"I feel terrible for the guys because I cost them a result. The car is a jet. I need to pull my finger out and do it again tomorrow and hopefully I can say them back.
"If we're having a few beers over some trophies tomorrow maybe I won't feel so shit house."
De Pasquale, who failed to score points for only the third time this season, added: “Today started off really well. We made it through qualifying and into the shootout where I managed to put it on pole.
“Then what can I say about the race? It was over before it started. I just got hit from behind and that was the day done. I'm really disappointed. I know the crew will do an awesome job overnight getting the car ready for tomorrow, and we’ll go again.”
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