Darwin double for McLaughlin as championship leader takes win from pole

Defending Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin has further extended his 2020 title lead thanks to a pole-to-flag victory for the DJR Team Penske driver, putting in another controlling drive for his seventh win of the season.

From going just half a tenth quicker than rival Shane van Gisbergen in qualifying, McLaughlin had to convert perfectly off the start line to get the edge over the Triple Eight driver for the 38 lap race.

Despite being on the inside line, McLaughlin got the holeshot in to Turn 1 as his team-mate Fabian Coulthard jumped from sixth to third by the first corner, drawing alongside with van Gisbergen but unable to get past the #97, making it an all-Kiwi top three.

Though the first three cars on the road started to stretch out a margin over the Team 18 cars of Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom behind them, the round of pit stops saw Coulthard come in first, followed by van Gisbergen on the next lap and McLaughlin on the tour after that.

Coming out of the pits with a healthy margin, McLaughlin proceeded to control the race from the front on two fresh rear tyres, maintaining a margin near five seconds over van Gisbergen as those who were yet to pit continued to circulate.

Pye was on track for a podium by staying out to take a late pit stop when he briefly went off the road with 12 laps to go, taking his pit stop to come out behind Coulthard and nearly four seconds away from the last step on the dais.

On fresh tyres, Pye was able to hunt down Coulthard, chasing the back of the #12 car and able to get past with eight laps to go, setting his sights on van Gisbergen some four seconds up the road.

A few spots back down the road, Jamie Whincup was able to fend off an attack from Nick Percat, holding on to sixth in the #88 Triple Eight car as Percat’s Brad Jones Racing entry came under first form Chaz Mostert with the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver trading places for seventh place.

The strong battle between the pair came to an abrupt end when Mostert fed Percat off the road at Turn 1, resulting in a 15 second penalty for the #25 car as Percat dropped back to 15th after the contact.

With just two laps to go, Pye got himself closer to the rear wing of van Gisbergen, applying a large amount of pressure to the 2016 champion but he couldn’t find a way past, ending up just under a car length behind the #97 car at the flag as McLaughlin won by nearly 10 seconds.

Coulthard finished a lonely fourth, ahead of Cam Waters who was able to bring the Tickford Racing car home ahead of Whincup, James Courtney, Lee Holdsworth, Mark Winterbottom and Anton de Pasquale.

Mostert dropped down to 18th place after his penalty was applied, five spots behind Percat who recovered to finish 13th despite the contact.

The weekend’s final race gets the green flag at 1425 local time, again running for 38 laps with van Gisbergen starting from pole alongside McLaughlin on the front row.