A tumultuous race full of penalties, safety cars, and collisions ended with two Kiwis in the top 10 — Andre Heimgartner, and Matt Payne, who recovered impressively after a penalty dropped him to 22nd.
Starting from pole, Ryan Wood made a strong getaway to stay ahead of Feeney, fending off the Red Bull driver’s early challenge. Matt Payne followed closely in third.
Stanaway made an incredible start, surging past the cars around him and gaining five positions through the opening corners — the most of any driver.
Heimgartner lost one position off the start — to Stanaway — while Jaxon Evans managed to gain a spot.
At turn 11, Will Brown spun out and narrowly avoided the wall, dropping him all the way to the back of the field.
In the opening laps, Wood set the fastest times and built a 0.7-second lead, while Payne began applying pressure on Feeney.
On lap 7, Wood started dropping back as his car started having fueling issues. This let Feeney overtake him along the main straight, followed by Payne and Chaz Mostert on the next corner.
When Wood pitted after being called in by his team, he left a big puddle of fuel and had to be called into the garage to assess the cause of the leak.
The Kiwis continued to suffer bad luck as Stanaway was given a 5-second penalty for exceeding track limits to gain an advantage, dropping him down the order.
As Payne was pushing up to Feeney, the safety car was brought out after one of the Queensland signs of the fences fell halfway off and had to be removed.
While the whole field pitted, chaos ensued at the front of the lane, where nearly every team had to double-stack.
Mostert got stuck in his box as the rear of Kai Allen’s car was in his way, since the pit boxes were only 6 metres apart. He ended up pushing Allen’s car out of the way to get out after they held up multiple drivers.
As Mostert was going down the lane, Payne had an unsafe release and ran into the side of Mostert, resulting in a penalty for Payne. He then pulled back and re-entered behind Mostert.
Due to the chaos at the pit lane, the order completely changed, ultimately benefiting Heimgartner, who got up to 7th.
Evans also improved his position, getting up to 12th, while Stanaway dropped to the back of the field after his teammate James Golding had a 43-second pit stop ahead of him.
Feeney immediately pulled ahead on the race restart to build a margin over Waters, who got ahead during the pit stop.
Wood was able to go out again after the clamp on his fuel receptacle was fixed, allowing him to complete the majority of the race.
Payne was then handed a 15-second penalty for hitting Mostert in the pit lane.
Disaster struck for Evans as Cooper Murray hit the wall just ahead of him, taking them both out as his front got destroyed by Murray’s car. He was able to limp around the track, but Murray’s car was badly damaged and had to be recovered, bringing out another safety car.
After the restart, Feeney ran wide at turn 4, giving Cam Waters the chance to push up right behind and attempt to pass.
Just over a lap was completed before a third safety car was brought out, despite being less than a third of the way through the race. This time, a tyre bundle was destroyed after Mostert hit it, creating a hazard on the track.
Despite his pit stop, Stanaway recovered 8 positions and restarted in 14th, up 4 spots from his starting position.
Evans made it back out just after the restart, rejoining the race 10 laps down. Unfortunately, he had to retire a few laps later and wasn’t able to finish the race.
After closing in at the front, Mostert was able to get ahead of Waters and start chasing down Feeney at the front.
A few laps later, Mostert caught up to Feeney and plunged down the inside of a corner to take the lead from the Red Bull Driver. He soon started setting laps at qualifying speed and built a 3-second lead.
Payne was the first driver to take the second pit stop, going early to serve his 15-second penalty and come out with clear air.
When Stanaway pitted, he took his 5-second penalty from the start of the race, dropping him further back to 17th when rejoining.
Heimgartner was running in 7th before putting, but came out in 9th, just behind Waters, who had fallen back. Heimgartner was overtaken by Brown as well, going back to 10th.
Once everyone pitted, the field was shaken up again as some drivers were running on an alternate strategy after taking their second pit stop earlier. Reynolds and Allen had a 10-second lead in front, but didn’t have the same fuel and fresh tyres as the cars behind.
Stanaway passed Cam Hill for 16th but ended up 7 seconds behind Payne, who had made it up to 15th after his early pit.
Payne continued improving by passing Golding and gaining on 14th, while Heimgartner also gained a position by overtaking Courtney.
After 10 laps, Mostert caught up to Allen and easily took second, turning his sights on Reynolds at the front. In just 2 laps, Mostert got behind him, getting on the inside at turn 11 and taking back the lead.
Further back, the mid pack were all bunched up as Heimgartner attempted to overtake Percat, instead getting passed by Courtney. He tried again and got back to 9th and ahead of Percat.
Payne briefly pulled ahead to 11th before being squeezed back as drivers ran into each other, falling back to 13th.
In the last 10 laps, Stanaway suffered heavy damage to his right front, which was partially ripped off. He had to go into the pit, coming out 3 laps behind to finish the race.
After hitting Payne along the front straight, Davison was given a 5-second penalty in the last laps of the race, which was added to his total race time and affected his final position.
Right at the end, Reynolds ran out of fuel and had to go into the pits, dropping from 4th to 14th.
In the end, the scattered results of the Kiwi racers reflected the race’s overall chaos. Heimgartner was the only New Zealander to finish in the top 10, ending up in 8th after Davisons’ penalty, while Payne wasn’t far behind in 11th.
After disastrous incidents during the race, Stanaway and Wood finished multiple laps behind in 19th and 20th, while Evans DNF.
The racing continues tomorrow as Wood and Payne look to keep their run for finals contention going.
