Brodie Kostecki wins incident-packed second Melbourne race

Brodie Kostecki won his second consecutive Supercars Championship race of the weekend at Albert Park in Melbourne, beating pole sitter Matthew Payne after an overtake during the first part of the race.

Grove Racing’s Payne made the best start and headed the field for the first four laps when rival Ford driver Kostecki made another clean move for the lead.

Triple Eight driver Will Brown caused the first of many incidents of the race during the first lap, putting himself and Cooper Murray into the gravel at Turn 11.

Both were able to continue, albeit further down the field and the stewards handed Brown a 15-second penalty which saw him finish down in 21st place.

Brown’s team-mate Broc Feeney tangled with Aaron Cameron at Turn 13 on lap ten in the fight for fourth, with Cameron banging wheels in return at the corner exit.

The incident saw further contact a corner later as Kai Allen tried to pass Cameron – sending both into a spin and down the order.

Feeney was able to continue to finish the race in sixth while Cameron dropped down to finish 24th and last. Allen made a strong recovery after the spin to finish fifth.

Payne closed in on Dick Johnson Racing’s Kostecki towards the end of the race in the fight for the lead.

But it was not enough as Kostecki won the race with a margin of 0.571 seconds over Payne.

Ryan Wood claimed Toyota’s first Supercars Championship podium finish in third place for Walkinshaw TWG Racing.

Cameron Waters was a distant fourth, more than 25 seconds from the leaders, ahead of Allen Jack Le Brocq and Feeney.

The third race of the Formula 1 weekend starts at 17:35 local time/07:35 CET on Saturday.