Scott McLaughlin handles the heat to take Sunday Ipswich victory

Scott McLaughlin held off a late attack from Shane van Gisbergen to win his 14th race of the season at Queensland Raceway, completing a clean sweep of Sunday in Ipswich.

The DJR Team Penske driver started from pole but had his hands full in the closing laps to fend off a charge from the Triple Eight pilot as the pair came home split by under a second.

McLaughlin’s win may be the third in three years at his team’s home track but it wasn’t as straightforward as he would have hoped, having to deal with unwanted pressure in the closing stages of the 200km race.

The front row starters in McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert got off the line evenly, going neck and neck into Turn 1 in their DJR Team Penske and Tickford Racing Ford Mustangs as they battled it out for the lead.

Mostert tried to put McLaughlin shallow into the first corner but the championship leader prevailed, sticking on the inside into Turn 2 and down the back straight to keep himself in the lead.

With clean air, McLaughlin reset the race lap record on his second tour after posting a 1:09.6229 lap, showing the speed of the #17 Mustang with two lap records in the one day.

A hard day for Fabian Coulthard continued as the DJR Team Penske driver was spun at Turn 4 by Anton de Pasquale’s Erebus car after the Kiwi had run deep into the turn, making contact with the front of de Pasquale who kept turning.

Cam Waters was the first to stop on lap 13 for Tickford, followed by Jamie Whincup in the #88 Triple Eight car on lap 15 as McLaughlin relinquished the race lead on the next tour to Mostert.

The Tickford driver stayed out for a few more tours until he came in for a longer stop on lap 20, shadowed by Shane van Gisbergen the next time around in the #97 Triple Eight entry. Will Davison was the last of the leaders to stop on lap 22 in the 23Red Racing Mustang, looking for another good result after a maiden podium on Saturday.

McLaughlin opened up a gap in the second segment of the race, extending his lead to Whincup out to over five seconds as van Gisbergen started to range up on his Triple Eight team-mate, eventually getting past.

Genuine car pace before the next round of pit stops allowed van Gisbergen to slowly chip away at McLaughlin’s lead, going quicker by small margins on each lap to pull the gap back to under five seconds.

Pitting from the lead, McLaughlin came in on lap 38, shadowed by Whincup and Mostert. While McLaughlin kept the effective race lead, Mostert was able to jump Whincup thanks to taking a longer fuel fill in the first pit stop, shortening the second.

Lap 39 saw van Gisbergen follow the trend, taking on his final lot of fuel and tyres, emerging back onto the track behind McLaughlin but ahead of Mostert, only around four seconds down on the leader.

With 20 laps to go, McLaughlin’s lead started to come down as van Gisbergen gained more ground, the gap closing to under three seconds as the pair continued to pull away on the rest of the pack.

The difference between van Gisbergen and McLaughlin started to come down even further as the duo entered the final ten laps with the Triple Eight driver getting below a second and a half to the championship leader.

Less than half a second split the leaders going into the last five laps with van Gisbergen consistently gaining on McLaughlin who was struggling in the long run. Despite the pressure and worn out tyres, McLaughlin held on to take his 14th win of the season.

Mostert held on for third some ten seconds away from the lead while Whincup fought off Davison for fourth. A tough weekend for McLaughlin’s team-mate Coulthard was highlighted by a 18th placed finish after the earlier contact with de Pasquale.

McLaughlin now extends his championship lead to 433 points ahead of the next round, held at The Bend Motorsports Park on August 23-25th.