Photo: Supercars

Scott McLaughlin takes win under Sydney lights

Race 10 polesitter Scott McLaughlin was able to convert his pole to victory in tonight’s night race at Sydney Motorsport Park, splitting his strategy and with DJR Team Penske hedging their bets to perform well today as well as the rest of the round.

Though he didn’t lead every lap and seemed to lack ultimate pace, a strong strategy from his team and important passes where they counted meant the Kiwi was able to notch up his fourth win of the year, extending his championship lead in the process of hunting down a third championship in as many years.

The front row duel of McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen saw the DJR Team Penske driver get the edge into Turn 1 despite being on hard tyres though van Gisbergen pushed his way past in the Triple Eight car to take the opening lap lead.

Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters and Lee Holdsworth followed suit and quickly displaced McLaughlin off the podium, all on different strategies with soft Dunlop rubber versus the harder compound for McLaughlin. Anton de Pasquale got past for fourth soon after, elevating the leading four soft tyre runners to the front of the pack while McLaughlin and the rest of the pack slowly slipped back.

Looking for the undercut, McLaughlin was the first in the front packl to take his pit stop, bolting on four fresh soft tyres to the #17 machine on lap 11 which helped him jump de Pasquale when the Erebus driver stopped on lap 13.

The pair got an edge over Holdsworth as he put on another set of soft rubber in his pit stop, coming out of the lane ahead of McLaughlin but unable to put up a fight on cold tyres, having to yield to the Kiwi and de Pasquale after some minor contact.

With van Gisbergen holding a 15 second lead over Fabian Coulthard’s DJRTP machine, Triple Eight finally brought him in for hard tyres on lap 20, having a slow stop which meant he lost track position and eventually pace as he slotted back on track in fifth behind team-mate Jamie Whincup.

Holdsworth looked to mount a challenge to McLaughlin, getting to within a second of the race leader after he got past de Pasquale but he’d already burnt up his tyres, allowing the #17 to run ahead for a fourth win of the season with Holdsworth notching up his second podium in a row for the year.

de Pasquale came home in third while the Triple Eight pairing of Whincup and van Gisbergen finished a distant fourth and fifth, ahead of Waters in sixth. Coulthard was able to take seventh on the final lap from Macauley Jones, notching up his best Supercars finish for Brad Jones Racing. His team-mate Nick Percat took the flag behind in ninth while Team 18’s Mark Winterbottom rounded out the top ten.