Mostert doubles down with Sydney finale win, Payne fourth

Chaz Mostert has climbed to second in the Supercars standings and closed the gap further to Will Brown with his second win of the weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.

As was the case in Saturday’s race, the two-stopping Walkinshaw Andretti United driver was forced to overcome one-stopping rivals. He did so with ease, jumping Cam Waters on Lap 40 and cruising to a comfortable 7.3-second victory.

Waters held off a late challenge from championship leader Will Brown, who also ran a one-stop strategy, to secure a Ford one-two, with the Red Bull Racing driver the first Camaro home in third.

Matt Payne was the first Kiwi home, passing Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale in the final stint for fourth.

De Pasquale settled for fourth, two seconds ahead of his teammate.

Ryan Wood, who qualified as the fastest Kiwi in ninth, lost ground in an early tangle with David Reynolds and finished 16th. Andre Heimgartner was 19th, ahead of Jaxon Evans in 20th and Richie Stanaway in 21st.

Red Bull Racing’s Broc Feeney, who sat second in the standings before the event, was only able to recover five places from a disappointing qualifying result of 16th to finish 11th, dropping to third in the standings as a result.

Davison had earlier led the field to green and held the inside line through Turn 1, emerging ahead of Mostert, who nearly pulled a car-length ahead off the front row.

However, it only took until Turn 5 for the WAU Mustang to hit the front, and once in the lead, Mostert controlled the race.

Wood climbed to seventh on Lap 1, while Payne gained a place to sit 10th.

By Lap 5, Mostert led by 2.5 seconds. That continued to grow over the following tours and steadied at about four seconds before the first round of stops.

In the pack, Wood came under pressure from Nick Percat on the straight to start Lap 8. Payne, who was behind both, shot to the inside to gain two positions in a three-wide battle on the run to Turn 1.

The fight for seventh brought Reynolds into the mix within the congested group, and he came together with Wood at Turn 7. The duo both ran onto the grass, with Wood returning in 13th and Reynolds in 18th.

Feeney was the first to stop, coming in on Lap 11.

Payne followed the next lap, as did Wood and Reynolds.

Mostert and Davison stopped from first and second on Lap 14, putting Waters into the lead. Mostert remained at the front of those electing for a two-stop strategy, with Davison returning to second ahead of Payne.

Waters pitted for the only time on Lap 23, and De Pasquale and Brown followed a lap later.

By then, Mostert’s advantage over Davison sat at over 12 seconds, albeit with varying fuel loads taken early.

Wood, Davison and Heimgartner were among the first to pit for a second time, coming in on Lap 30. Payne followed on Lap 31, returning five seconds behind Davison.

Mostert stopped on Lap 32, returning 10 seconds behind Waters with 19 laps remaining. Brown and De Pasquale also remained ahead, whom he quickly passed to move to second.

Mostert returned to the lead with a tidy pass on Lap 40, with 11 laps remaining.

Waters remained second until the chequered flag, holding off intermittent challenges from Brown over the closing stages.

Payne overturned a five-second gap to Davison to take fifth before overtaking De Pasquale for fourth in the closing stages.

Brodie Kostecki, who also ran a one-stop, was seventh, ahead of Percat, Golding and Randle, who completed the top ten.

Supercars returns with the Tasmania SuperSprint on August 16-18, ahead of the Sandown 500 on September 13-15 and the Bathurst 1000 on October 10-13.

Supercars Race 16 Results- Sydney

Header Image: Walkinshaw Andretti United