Kostecki wins Gold Coast finale

Brodie Kostecki has led home the Red Bull duo of Will Brown and Broc Feeney to take his second win in as many rounds in this evening’s Gold Coast 500 finale.

Second place for Brown brings him closer to his maiden Supercars title, extending his advantage over his teammate in the standings to 180 points ahead of the season-finale in Adelaide.

For Kostecki, the race was won off the line, with the pole-sitter getting a good launch and covering off Brown on the outside.

A multi-car pileup on Lap 1 claimed several victims, including New Zealand’s Ryan Wood, who was left nose-first in the tyres.

The crash came as Richie Stanaway made a dive up the inside of Anton De Pasquale on the fringe of the top ten, putting him in the middle of a three-wide battle with Ryan Wood on the outside.

The DJR entry made contact with the WAU Mustang, sending it into the outside wall, before taking contact from the trailing James Courtney, who was left with nowhere to go. De Pasquale spun and was left facing the wrong way, while Courtney was left side-on to the track, blocking the way through for the following field and catching out several others through nose-to-tail contact.

Among the worst damaged was Nick Percat, who hit the rear of Courtney’s Mustang at speed.

Remarkably, De Pasquale was the only one forced from the race, although Courtney, Percat and Wood lost laps on the field while in for repairs.

Of the top ten, James Golding was the first to drop from contention, with PremiAir Nulon Racing botching his pit stop for the second consecutive day when he came in on Lap 10.

The remainder of the lead group came in from Lap 23, with Payne jumping first, with Kostecki maintaining the advantage once the cycle had played out.

The biggest mover was Feeney, who climbed to fourth, behind only Kostecki, Brown and Mostert, the latter of whom had ran in third since the start.

Kostecki etched out his advantage during the second stint and returned from his second stop with a net three-second advantage over the field. Waters had also surged into podium contention and sat fifth after the second stops.

The Tickford Mustang gained a spot at the expense of Mostert on Lap 64, with the WAU driver’s slim title hopes dashed when his team mistakenly used Wood’s fuel rig on his car. He was forced to stop a third time for extra fuel, and the team faces a post-race investigation for the incident.

Out on track, Kostecki was faultless on the run to the flag, taking the win by 3.4 seconds. Waters followed the two Red Bulls home in fourth, ahead of Saturday’s runner-up Thomas Randle.

Andre Heimgartner bounced back from his qualifying crash to surge from 17th to finish sixth as the first Kiwi home. Compatriot Richie Stanaway followed in seventh, ahead of Jack Le Brocq, Matt Payne and David Reynolds, who completed the top ten.

Jaxon Evans was also a big mover, climbing from 21st to 15th, while Wood finished in 21st following his Lap 1 incident.

Supercars return on November 14-17 with the Adelaide 500.

Gold Coast 500 Race 2 Results

Header Image: Supercars