Anton de Pasquale and Cam Waters share Eseries wins at Silverstone

Wednesday night’s first two races for the Supercars Eseries have seen breakthrough victories for both Anton de Pasquale and Cam Waters, the young pair getting strong results after missing out on the spoils in the opening round.

Held at Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix, Erebus Motorsport’s de Pasquale and Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters showed their strengths around the European track against champions of the sport.

While not as crash-marred as the final race from the opening round, chaos was still on the menu for the first two races of the night as the reverse grid outing to close the UK action saw only a handful of straight panels at the race’s conclusion.

Sweeping his third pole from as many qualifying sessions so far in the season, de Pasquale got to the top of the timesheets ahead of the opening race, just pipping championship leader Scott McLaughlin in the DJR Team Penske car.

The opening lap saw de Pasquale and McLaughlin fight for the lead until Shane van Gisbergen got his Triple Eight car in position to hassle his fellow Kiwi, letting de Pasquale run away at the front while the championship protagonists from the last few years fought hard into Maggotts and Becketts.

In-fighting between the New Zealanders played right into the hands of Dutch wildcard Max Verstappen who was able to squeeze past the pair through Chapel and onto the Hangar Straight, taking second place for Red Bull Racing. The top four started to run away from the pack as Andre Heimgartner and Chaz Mostert engaged in a battle for fifth place.

With just seven laps to run in total, the pace at the front stayed flat out through the race as van Gisbergen started to close up on team-mate Verstappen. Having driven together for Team Redline virtually in the recent past, the two were able to shadow each other which let McLaughlin close the gap and de Pasquale gain an advantage out front.

Holding on for his first victory of the season, de Pasquale crossed the line first ahead of Verstappen and van Gisbergen while McLaughlin settled for fourth place. Mostert held of Heimgartner for fifth while Garry Jacobson got a Matt Stone Racing car into the top ten, followed by Will Davison, Nick Percat and Will Brown who was drafted in to replace David Reynolds at Erebus.

Race two for the night copied the format of the Phillip Island round last week with a reverse grid start plus a compulsory pit stop through the nine lap outing, adding more potential drama to the event.

With Team 18’s Mark Winterbottom on the pole and the Team Sydney car of Chris Pither beside him, it was the 2015 seasies champion who got the holeshot into Turn One as chaos began behind him. Nearly everyone was caught up in some form of contact on the opening lap as McLaughlin’s great run of gaining ten spots came to an end after being hit on the Hangar straight.

McLaughlin and de Pasquale elected to pit at the end of the first lap to get away from the madness as Winterbottom held the race lead. van Gisbergen was being hassled by DJR Team Penske driver Fabian Coulthard who went off the road earlier shortly after taking the race lead, wanting to get back up front.

Matt Stone Racing pilot Jake Kostecki started to apply the pressure to Winterbottom only a handful of laps into the race, getting close to the Team 18 car but making a mistake which gave the #18 a reprieve while the #334 dropped positions.

As the pit stops rolled on, de Pasquale had the effective race lead with team-mate Brown just behind him, just ahead of Zane Goddard in the third MSR car with McLaughlin in hot pursuit, wanting to salvage points after a disastrous opening lap.

Race leader Winterbottom and second-placed van Gisbergen pitted on lap six as Kostecki inherited the lead, having to hold off Tickford Racing driver Cam Waters while de Pasquale chipped away at the gap between the pair, wanting a second win on the trot.

At the end of the Hangar Straight into Stowe, Waters took the lead thanks to a hip-and-shoulder move on Kostecki who became vulnerable with two laps to run from de Pasquale and van Gisbergen. The young gun was given space to breathe when the battle for third resulted in van Gisbergen touching de Pasquale’s rear, half-spinning the Erebus car but giving him another touch to straighten up, leaving them to play on.

Waters held the lead until the end, breaking through for his first win after coming second in last week’s closing race as Jake Kostecki scored second place ahead of seasoned experts de Pasquale and van Gisbergen. McLaughlin was able to get past Brown on the final lap for fifth while Winterbottom, Coulthard, Heimgartner and Todd Hazelwood rounded out the top ten.

Races three and four for the night will get underway shortly and will run at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the home of the Spanish Grand Prix where Max Verstappen got his first Formula One win back in 2016.