Photo: V8 Supercars

Jamie Whincup wins second Gold Coast race ahead of Scott McLaughlin

By

Jamie Whincup with co-driver Paul Dumbrell won the second 300 kilometer V8 Supercars race at Gold Coast. Pole sitter Scott McLaughlin came home in second place, withstanding hard pressure from Nissan driver Michael Caruso towards the end of the race.

Dumbrell started the race in the #1 Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden Commodore and made his way past Alexandre Prémat, who started the race in the #33 Volvo S60, early on.

Jonathon Webb managed to get past Prémat as well before the first pitstop, before handing over to Shane Van Gisbergen. There was drama between McLaughlin and Van Gisbergen after the first pitstop as the Volvo team managed to get McLaughlin out just ahead of the Tekno Autosports driver.

Van Gisbergen managed to get back past McLaughlin just a corner later with a small tap to the back of the Volvo S60. The stewards awarded the place back to McLaughlin who got back up to second position under a safety car period as Dale Wood stopped on track.

There was even further drama between McLaughlin and Van Gisbergen as the safety car went back in again. Whincup slowed down just before the restart, resulting in Van Gisbergen getting up alongside McLaughlin and passing the Volvo driver before the first corner.

The stewards gave Van Gisbergen a drive through penalty for a ”restart infringement”, leaving the Holden driver fuming. Van Gisbergen fought his way back up through the field to finish an impressive fifth behind Tim Slade.

David Reynolds was the top Ford driver in sixth position ahead of Fabian Coulthard and Russell Ingall.

There were several safety car periods, one after a spectacular crash for Nissan driver James Moffat who went into the wall hard.