Red Bull Ampol Racing having enjoyed back-to-back wins in the Supercars season-opener at Bathurst, with Will Brown standing on the podium on Sunday after Broc Feeney’s epic win on Saturday.
But it was a day of high drama for Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert, who was left disappointed after the race, coming in second after leading for 23 laps.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Bathurst drama as Will Brown sneaks ahead of Chaz Mostert.
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For Mostert, it came down to a costly second-round pit-stop, where the wrong tyre went on his right front and too much fuel went in.
Both Mostert and Brown had pitted with 11 laps to go.
As the drivers pulled out of pitlane, it was Brown who was ahead and he maintained the lead, eventually winning by 1.5535sec
Later it was revealed that “the non-preferred tyre” had gone on Mostert’s right front, which had already run the race track for somewhere between 5-7 laps.
“Little bit gutted …,” Mostert told Seven after the race.
“We had a problem with the right front, too, but still got a another good tyre on … That is all I had at the end there … unfortunately the thing didn’t cough.”
At the end of the race, Seven’s racing experts widely agreed: “That was ultimately the winning manoeuvre.”
It was also noted that while there was “a lot of drama around” the front right, the fuel injection went longer than the tyre drama.
“Look at the fuel numbers. And I see that they put more fuel in Brown (early). Take your (fuel) pain early. We know that. That gave (Brown) eight litres less later. That’s what jumped (Mostert),” the expert commentators said.
With the win on Sunday and the second-placing on Saturday, Brown now leads the Championship with 288 points.
Feeney is nine points behind him, and Mostert (with a third on Saturday to go along with his second on Sunday) is 21 points behind Brown on 267 points.
Those three drivers were all on the podium on both days despite Feeney being hit with a five-second time penalty for an early bump into the Nulon Racing Camaro of James Golding.
Brown said after the race: “Yeah, it means a lot, first round with the new team.
“To get a win, to get a pole position this weekend, absolutely stoked.
“So, thanks to everyone at Red Bull Ampol Racing. I’m absolutely knackered. It was pretty hard out there.
“I had Chaz just pushing me along. I was thinking, can he piss off? But, he wouldn’t.”
The weekend’s results mean Red Bull will move up pitlane for the next round.
The new system has been introduced this year, and it is (as explained by Supercars) a “live pitlane” that “will see pit positions change in accordance with each round-ending points tally for teams”.
The Supercars Championship will now head to Albert Park for the Melbourne SuperSprint on March 21-24.
