» V8s: Coulthard takes points lead with win

Fresh from claiming his first ever Adelaide podium, Fabian Coulthard went one better in Saturday’s second race of the V8 Supercars’ Clipsal 500 by claiming victory and the lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings. It was the 100th race win for the Brad Jones Racing squad.

After failing to take the start in the opening race with an oil pump failure on the warm-up lap, the Volvo Polestar Racing squad performed miracles to fit a brand new engine into Scott McLaughlin’s car in time for the second race.

The drama for the young Kiwi hadn’t ended there. Starting from the front row alongside Race 1 winner and reigning champion Jamie Whincup, McLaughlin leaped off the line just fractions of a second too early to take the lead into Turn 1.

McLaughlin was issued a 10-second stop/go penalty to serve during his compulsory pit stop; he pitted from the lead during a Safety Car interruption, but the serving of the penalty during a full-course caution is in violation of the rules and so he was given a further time penalty. After crossing the finish line in third, the additional time penalty dropped him to ninth place.

Whincup had taken over the lead from McLaughlin during his visit to the pits, but his hopes of claiming back-to-back wins went south when he ran wide at the Turn 9 hairpin, allowing Coulthard to slip into the lead.

The Red Bull Racing driver’s woes didn’t end there, as shortly after his left rear tyre blew through the fastest corner of the circuit – the daunting Turn 8 right-hand sweep – and somehow kept his Holden from cannoning into the barriers and having an almighty accident. He limped back to the pits and rejoined in last place, eventually finishing in 21st place.

There were suspicions that debris from two earlier accidents at the same corner had caused Whincup’s dramas. Michael Caruso shunted his Nissan Altima at the same corner, and shortly before Chaz Mostert had achieved the same feat in his Ford Falcon.

There were two other retirees: Will Davison’s 300th race start celebrations will be postponed until tomorrow thanks to a clutch failure before the start of the race, while Time Slade retired late in the race after hitting Shane van Gisbergen’s Holden, dropping the Kiwi to a frustrated 13th.

The Holdens of James Courtney (HRT) and Craig Lowndes (Red Bull Racing) completed the podium, and the run of Commodores spanned the entire top-five with Garth Tander (HRT) and Jason Bright (Brad Jones Racing) claiming the honours.

Best of the non-Holdens were the Nissans of Rick Kelly and James Moffat in sixth and seventh respectively. Series rookie Ash Walsh made up for a disappointing opening race where he was innocently taken out in someone else’s accident to finish eighth in his Erebus Mercedes.

2015 V8 Supercars Clipsal 500 Adelaide – Race 2 (39 laps):

	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result
1.	Fabian Coulthard	Brad Jones Racing / Holden Commodore VF	39	59:05.681
2.	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team / Holden Commodore VF	39	+ 1.957
3.	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing / Holden Commodore VF	39	+ 8.855
4.	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team / Holden Commodore VF	39	+ 10.006
5.	Jason Bright	Brad Jones Racing / Holden Commodore VF	39	+ 15.002
6.	Rick Kelly	Nissan Motorsport / Nissan Altima L33	39	+ 15.681
7.	James Moffat	Nissan Motorsport / Nissan Altima L33	39	+ 16.420
8.	Ashley Walsh	Erebus Motorsport V8 / Mercedes E63 AMG	39	+ 17.701
9.	Scott McLaughlin^	Wilson Security Racing Polestar GRM / Volvo S60	39	+ 18.207
10.	Lee Holdsworth	CS Racing / Holden Commodore VF	39	+ 18.288
11.	Mark Winterbottom	Pepsi Max Crew Prodrive / Ford Falcon FG X	33	+ 18.779
12.	Todd Kelly	Nissan Motorsport / Nissan Altima L33	33	+ 19.180
13.	Shane van Gisbergen	Team TEKNO Darrell Lea / Holden Commodore VF	33	+ 20.009
14.	Nick Percat	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport / Holden Commodore VF	33	+ 20.451
15.	David Wall	Wilson Security Racing Polestar GRM / Volvo S60	33	+ 22.635
16.	Marcos Ambrose	DJR Team Penske / Ford Falcon FG X	33	+ 24.110
17.	David Reynolds	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Ford Falcon FG	33	+ 25.226
18.	Dale Wood	Brad Jones Racing / Holden Commodore VF	33	+ 26.399
19.	Tim Blanchard	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport / Holden Commodore VF	33	+ 27.205
20.	Andre Heimgartner	Super Black Racing / Ford Falcon FG	32	+ 27.573
21.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing / Holden Commodore VF	33	+ 55.573
	Not Classified	Team / Entry	Laps	Result
DNF.	Tim Slade	Walkinshaw Racing / Holden Commodore VF	25	Collision
DNF.	Michael Caruso	Nissan Motorsport / Nissan Altima L33	16	Accident
DNF.	Chaz Mostert	Pepsi Max Crew Prodrive / Ford Falcon FG X	3	Accident
DNS.	Will Davison	Erebus Motorsport V8 / Mercedes E63 AMG	0	Clutch