Chaz Mostert wins, late drama for Shane van Gisbergen

Chaz Mostert won the final Supercars race of the weekend at Albert Park, while Shane van Gisbergen had late drama, dropping him towards the back of the pack. 

Andre Heimgartner, Todd Hazlewood, Macauley Jones and Jack Smith all started on the alternate had tyres 

The safety car came out shortly before the end of the opening lap for Jack Smith who couldn’t get the car away from the line due to a clutch issue.  

Up until that point, the field had a relatively calm start to the race with Will Davison leading the field away from the line, as he would again on the race restart.

Van Gisbergen moved up to fourth shortly after the restart, capitalising on the field is compressed. 

Chris Pither received an early drive-through penalty for a breach of the safety car restart procedures 

Lap 5 saw Davison have a massive lock-up letting Mostert and van Gisbergen close up putting pressure on him until he peeled into the pit lane to get off the damaged tyre. 

Van Gisbergen took advantage of the moment looking up the inside of Mostert taking the lead before Turn 1, he would emerge in second behind Mostert after the leaders completed their stops. 

Broc Feeney made contact with a car in the fast lane exiting his pit stall, earning a five-second penalty, shortly after Waters also received the same eventually for a pit lane infringement. 

Reynolds made contact with the wall forcing him into the pit lane around the halfway point of the race. 

Van Gisbergen had a significant lock up on the front left tyre on lap nine, falling off the back of Mostert who he had been following closely.  

Mostert continued to pull out the gap to the Kiwi who began to fall back towards Davison as the race went on. 

James Courtney joined the list of cars with a penalty receiving a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits 

As Davison began looking for a way past van Gisbergen with a few laps remaining, the Kiwi’s tyre blew, forcing him to limp back to the lane for fresh tyres dropping back to 20th, moving the two Shell V-Power entries of Davison and De Pasquale into second and third. 

Heimgartner finished 17th, while Pither was 21st.

Despite the late drama, van Gisbergen held on to win the Larry Perkins Trophy.

Race 9 results:

1. Chaz Mostert 
2. Will Davison 
3. Anton De Pasquale 
4. Tim Slade 
5. Brodie Kostecki 
6. Nick Percat
7. Cam Waters 
8. Will Brown 
9. Mark Winterbottom
10. Lee Holdsworth 
11. Scott Pye 
12. Broc Feeney 
13. Jake Kostecki 
14. Todd Hazlewood
15. Garry Jacobson
16. Jack Le Brocq 
17. Andre Heimgaartner 
18. Macaulay Jones 
19. Bryce Fullwood
20. Shane van Gisbergen 
21. Chris Pither 
22. James Courtney 
23. Thomas Randle 
24. David Reynolds 
25. Jack Smith

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