Anton De Pasquale secures race one victory

Anton De Pasquale produced a controlled drive at the front of the field to secure victory in race one of the first of four back-to-back Supercar events in Sydney.

De Pasquale had dominated qualifying to snare pole and he got the best start to lead into T1 under lights despite the best efforts of Will Brown who tried to hang on around the outside through the high-speed left hander.

Brown was almost alongside as the pair dropped into turn two, but with the inside line, De Pasquale held on to the lead as the Erebus Holden came under pressure from the second DJR car in the hands of Will Davison.

Davison had a look at turn three but was run wide across the grass, which allowed Shane van Gisbergen – who had rocketed off the line from P6 – to nip ahead into third, with Nick Percat then attacking the Mustang but without managing to get ahead.

As De Pasquale and Brown edged away at the front, Davison’s hold on fourth spot wouldn’t last for long as Percat managed to get ahead and was followed through by Brodie Kostecki to drop Davison back to P6.

The race soon settled down at the front, with De Pasquale holding a slender advantage over Brown as the pair dropped van Gisbergen, with Percat and Kostecki in clear air behind and Davison being chased down by Chaz Mostert, who had made up two spots from ninth on the grid.

With concerns about the impact of tyre degradation, David Reynolds was the first driver to roll the dice and elect to make an early stop when he dived in at the end of lap nine for his mandatory change, with Mark Winterbottom and Todd Hazelwood amongst those to follow suit a lap later as they looked to find clear air in the midfield.

Percat was the first of the front-runners to come in at the end of lap eleven and was followed in by Mostert on lap twelve.

As Davison became the next runner inside the top six to put, team-mate De Pasquale was edging clear at the front, helped by the fact that Brown was under pressure from van Gisbergen, who got up the inside out of the final corner at the end of lap 14 to move into second spot.

De Pasquale and Brown then pitted on the following lap but there was disaster at Erebus as a wheelnut issue cost him valuable time and dropped him down the order.

Van Gisbergen elected to go long on his first stint before pitting at the end of lap 19 back in a defacto third position after losing a spot during the stops to Percat, who found himself making up two spots thanks to Brown’s issue.

On fresher tyres, van Gisbergen cleared Percat at the end of lap 21 with a move similar to the one he had pulled on Brown.

When Tim Slade was the last man to pit at the end of lap 22, De Pasquale moved back into the lead of the race, with an advantage of little more than three seconds over van Gisbergen having pitted four laps earlier, with Percat, Mostert and Kostecki behind.

Brown meanwhile had dropped back down to sixth but was lapping quicker than the cars ahead and closed onto the fight between Mostert and Kostecki ahead. When Kostecki saw a chance to get ahead of Mostert on lap 25, Brown followed him through as the pair moved up into fourth and fifth spots.

With van Gisbergen warned by Triple Eight to watch his tyres, the points leader would drop away from De Pasquale but the fight was very much on for third, with Percat being hunted down by Kostecki and Brown – both of whom had swapped four tyres in the pits.

Kostecki dived down the inside to grab third spot two laps from home when Percat made a small error that opened the door going into turn six.

Out front however, De Pasquale’s domination of the weekend continued as he converted pole position into victory by just over five seconds – only missing out on a perfect run after being edged out of fastest lap by Brown.

Van Gisbergen took second spot with Kostecki taking third, and Percat holding off Brown to secure a well-earned fourth.

Mostert would take sixth ahead of Davison, with Reynolds benefitting from his early stop to grab eighth. Whincup and Tim Slade rounded out the top ten.

Two further races, both of which will run in daylight, are scheduled for Sunday.