Darwin Supercars: Coulthard mistake hands McLaughlin victory

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