A five-second penalty for an unsafe release in pit lane has cost Chaz Mostert victory in Race 2 of the Perth SuperSprint, with Tickford’s Cam Waters inheriting the win.
The decisive moment came on Mostert’s Lap 28 pit stop, with the Walkinshaw Andretti United entry released into the path of Tickford’s Thomas Randle, who stopped on the same lap from third.
Mostert would go on to cross the line first, but his 2.5885-second advantage turned into a 2.4115-second deficit.
Will Brown finished third, six seconds behind Waters, and kept his position following a five-second penalty of his own for contact on Randle while making a move for the final podium place at Turn 7 late in proceedings.
Following the contact, Randle was sent off the track and into the dirt, which allowed Shell V-Power Racing’s Will Davison through for fourth.
Davison and teammate Anton De Pasquale ran line-astern for the race’s second half after their pit stops, with Randle rejoining and splitting the pair for sixth.
Red Bull’s Broc Feeney moved forward to finish seventh, ahead of Ryan Wood in eighth, who had compatriot Matt Payne six seconds behind in ninth.
David Reynolds completed the top ten.
Richie Stanaway was 12th home, Andre Heimgartner was 15th, and Jaxon Evans was 18th.
Waters had earlier led the field away from the green but made an error and ran wide exiting Turn 7 on Lap 1, which allowed front-row starter Chaz Mostert through into the lead.
Randle ran third early, ahead of Brown and reigning champion Brodie Kostecki.
The first incident of note occurred on Lap 9 when Nick Percat and Jack Le Brocq collided. The latter was sent into a spin, and Percat received a 15-second penalty for the incident.
Mostert’s advantage at the front remained at just over one second from Waters over the opening 20 laps, with Randle losing slight ground on the pair but having a small advantage of his own over Brown.
Wood was amongst the first of the top ten to stop, and Kostecki followed on Lap 21 but went straight into his garage to retire with mechanical issues.
Tim Slade was the next driver to receive a penalty, copping 15 seconds for an unsafe release that saw him make contact with Evans in the pit lane.
Mostert stopped from the lead on Lap 28, which put Waters to the front from Brown, as Randle also came in from third, some 4.5 seconds behind.
WAU changed all four tyres on Mostert’s car, while Randle only took two, and was coming down pit lane when the early leader was released. Randle was forced to brake to let him in, and the two exited pit lane line-astern.
Waters stopped on Lap 30, and Brown followed in a lap later. The net running order saw Mostert at the front ahead of Randle but under investigation.
Wood’s early stop leapt him ahead of Brown, but the Red Bull driver quickly worked through for fourth with four much fresher tyres.
Waters got past Randle tidily on Lap 39 of 55 and had a 4.3-second deficit to Mostert, who only needed to pull a fourth seven-tenths clear for the win following the news of his penalty.
He would initially slightly extend this gap before the Tickford Monster Mustang began to reduce it entering the final 10 laps.
Wood was overcome by Davison and De Pasquale and had Feeney closing in behind.
Brown’s contact with Randle came with six laps to run after a battle lasting several laps, and Davison snuck through for fourth, with Randle sneaking out ahead of the second Shell V-Power entry.
Brown received a 5-second penalty for the incident, but it had little effect as he was already 6 seconds clear of fourth place.
The disruption ahead worked in favour of Wood, who briefly snuck through ahead of De Pasquale, who was battling Randle, on Lap 51.
The early stop hurt Wood’s chances later on, with the #11 taking the position back and Feeney following through shortly after.
Payne was a distant 6 seconds behind, leaving Wood to cross the line eighth.
Brown leaves Perth having extended his championship lead over Feeney to 136 points. Mostert is closing in on the #88, only 39 points behind in third.
Waters moves to fourth in the standings at the expense of Payne following his victory.
Supercars return to action with the Darwin Triple Crown on June 14-16.
Header Image: Supercars
