Craig Lowndes labels incident with Scott McLaughlin ”disappointing”

Craig Lowndes retired in spectacular fashion from the last race of the 2017 Supercars championship season in Newcastle after a controversial incident with Scott McLaughlin on the last lap.

”The incident with Scotty (Scott McLaughlin) was disappointing,” said Lowndes.

“To finish the year off with a bang like that is frustrating for me and my guys, obviously great for Jamie and Red Bull Holden for winning a Championship.”

The duo were fighting for eleventh position, the position needed for McLaughlin to secure the drivers’ title, when the DJR Team Penske driver made a mistake, allowing Triple Eight Race Engineering driver alongside. McLaughlin closed the door, pushing Lowndes into the barriers and into retirement.

“On the lap that we had contact he slid wide for some reason, got a really poor run off Turn 1, we somehow got the overlap, he was trying to defend but we already had that overlap,” said Lowndes to supercars.com.

“Where we actually hit the wall was a gap. Who knows if it would have been a solid wall if it’d be not as bad, but it’s ripped the front-left out and we had no brakes. Hence why the thing actually rotated when we got closer to the corner. Luckily we went in backwards, to be honest, because if we went in forwards I think for me it would have been a harder impact on the body.”

Lowndes dropped from sixth to tenth in the standings following two retirements in the season finale.

“What a day. It’s been a hell of a year, we were hoping for a really strong finish today to give the team a bit of a thank you for all their efforts this year. We will move on now, have a Christmas break and look forward to 2018,” said Lowndes.