» Supercars: McLaughlin Takes Tenth Season Win at Winton

Supercars Championship leader Scott McLaughlin has come one step closer to putting his hands on this year’s trophy after clean-sweeping this weekend’s Winton SuperSprint.

The DJR Team Penske driver took a lap record pole position en route to his tenth victory of the year in Race 14, extending his lead in the standings to teammate Fabian Coulthard out to nearly a round above his countryman.

It was a commanding drive for both of the Kiwis, McLaughlin leading from lights to flag after getting the jump over Coulthard off the line in another front row lock-out for the Queensland team.

All the drama happened behind them in the race with Chaz Mostert struggling on Sunday, the Saturday pole sitter ending up off the road on Lap 1 due to a self-inflicted error. A strong fightback saw him wind up tenth after a burst of speed at the end of the race on fresh tyres after a late Safety Car.

With less than ten laps remaining, the weekend’s only Safety Car came out to allow the recovery of Will Davison’s Mustang which had suffered a transaxle drama, forcing the 23Red driver to park up off the road at Turn 5.

The Safety Car was a saving grace for Mostert after dropping to the back of the pack on Lap 1, only to fight back up the order and cop a 15-second penalty after bumping James Courtney off the circuit before his last pit stop. On fresh rubber, he made his charge up the order to take a top-ten result in a race which could have been a write-off.

Jamie Whincup came home in third to give Triple Eight their only podium of the weekend, struggling in qualifying throughout the round with Shane van Gisbergen who had to fight from down the grid on both days to salvage a solid result.

David Reynolds proved himself as one of the more consistent performers, coming home in fourth on the back of his first ever Winton podium on Saturday, cementing himself as one of the “best of the rest” in the pack.

Although McLaughlin would have been nervous to see the Safety Car at the end of the race, nothing would stop him from taking the victory, completing a near perfect weekend for the defending series champion.

2019 Australian Supercars Championship Truck Assist Winton SuperSprint – Race 14 Final Classification (67 laps)
Pos	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Scott McLaughlin	Shell V-Power Racing Team	1:35:22.659
2.	Fabian Coulthard	Shell V-Power Racing Team	+ 0.767
3.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Holden Racing	+ 1.988
4.	David Reynolds	Penrite Racing	+ 4.354
5.	Lee Holdsworth	The Bottle-O Racing	+ 5.393
6.	Cameron Waters	Monster Energy Racing	+ 7.767
7.	Shane van Gisbergen	Red Bull Holden Racing	+ 8.261
8.	Scott Pye	Mobil 1 MEGA Racing	+ 9.014
9.	Nick Percat	Honda Motorcycles Dealer Team	+ 9.240
10.	Chaz Mostert	Supercheap Auto Racing	+ 9.491
11.	Andre Heimgartner	Plus Fitness Racing	+ 12.779
12.	Tim Slade	Freightliner Racing	+ 13.087
13.	James Courtney	Mobil 1 MEGA Racing	+ 13.824
14.	Mark Winterbottom	Irwin Racing	+ 14.314
15.	Chris Pither	Boost Mobile Racing	+ 14.940
16.	Todd Hazelwood	Bigmate Racing	+ 15.217
17.	Macauley Jones	Team CoolDrive	+ 15.566
18.	Anton de Pasquale	Penrite Racing	+ 15.917
19.	Garry Jacobson	RABBLE.club Racing	+ 17.378
20.	James Golding	Boost Mobile Racing	+ 37.975
21.	Jack Le Brocq	Truck Assist TEKNO Racing	1 lap behind
22.	Jack Smith	SCT Logistics Racing	1 lap behind
23.	Simona de Silvestro	Team Harvey Norman	1 lap behind
	Not Classified	Team	Reason
DNF.	Will Davison	Milwaukee Racing	Transaxle
DNF.	Rick Kelly	Castrol Racing	Engine

Post-Race Penalties:

Jack Le Brocq was awarded a 15-second post-race time penalty for causing avoidable contact with Garry Jacobson.
Irwin Racing was fined $3,000 and docked 30 Teams’ Championship points for a line locker failure during one of Mark Winterbottom’s pit stops.

Image via Supercars