Supercars Melbourne 400 – Mustangs Continue dominance

Ford’s Mustangs have continued their dominance early in the 2019 Supercars Championship.

After winning both races of the opening round in Adelaide, reigning champion Scott McLaughlin won three out of four races at Albert Park last weekend and maintained a lead on the championship despite a DNF in Race 5. Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert won the Larry Perkins Trophy, awarded to the driver who accumulates the most points throughout the event. The Mustangs have also claimed six out of six pole positions this year, which have been shared between McLaughlin Mostert and Fabian Coulthard.

It was all Ford on the podium after Race 3 on Friday as McLaughlin, Coulthard, Cameron Waters, Will Davison and Mostert finished in the top five. The highest finishing Commodore was Tim Slade’s Freightliner Racing entry in 6^th, while Andre Heimgartner was the fastest Nissan in 15^th.

Jamie Whincup finished 4^th in Race 4 – but he was the only non-Mustang inside the top six as McLaughlin, Mostert and Waters took top honours.

A drama-filled Race 5 was over for McLaughlin and Waters before it even began, as the pole sitter and second fastest qualifier collided on the formation lap. Both cars had enough damage to prevent them from heading out on the track at all on Saturday afternoon. Both drivers were unwilling to take the blame for the incident, however, neither were officially penalised by the stewards.

It made for an unusual sight as the front row of the grid was completely empty for the start of the race, effectively giving the two Brad Jones Racing cars on the second row first and second position.

Meanwhile, Richie Stanaway was disqualified from Race 5 and fined $10,000 after contact with Lee Holdsworth. This came after Stanaway was also handed a 5-second time penalty for a clash with Holdsworth in Race 4. Holdsworth labelled Stanaway an “absolute imbecile” after the two exchanged words in the garage post race.

Stanaway told speedcafe.com the punishments were “harsh,” while Boost Mobile Racing boss Garry Rogers backed Stanaway’s on-track actions.

“…The fact of the matter is this category is so tight, so close, you watch every reasonable move that a pass takes, there’s a slight tap, bit of movement, so you get a crack at it,” Rogers said on Fox Sports.

“But I’m totally against all this lineup, drive ‘em into the wall type of stuff, but seriously, we need to understand what people go and fill those stands and watch the television screens for,” he said.

Mostert won Race 5 from Jamie Whincup and Tim Slade, making it the only race of the weekend to see one Ford and two Holden’s on the podium.

Whincup finished in eighth, fourth, second and third in the races and second in the Larry Perkins Trophy, said his success was largely due to luck.

“We just got lucky with a crazy scenario where two cars crashed into each other on the warm-up lap,” he told supercars.com.

Brad Jones Racing driver Slade, who recorded his first podium since Newcastle in 2017, told supercars.com the first two events of the 2019 season have been “extremely promising.” Slade and teammate Nick Percat both finished inside the top ten in Races 5 and 6, however, rookie Macauley Jones had another weekend to forget after a collision with Garry Jacobson forced a DNF.

McLaughlin returned to the top step in Race 6, ahead of Mostert, who struggled with flu-like symptoms all weekend, and Whincup.

Shane van Gisbergen had a horror weekend on track, with a 10^th place in Race 4 being his best result. An engine failure in Race 3 forced a DNF, a lost wheel ruined Race 5, and a time-penalty after a collision with Coulthard in Race 6 saw van Gisbergen drop from 13^th to 22^nd. Red Bull Racing was fined $5,000 and docked 30 points in the teams’ championship for the wheel loss. Team manager Mark Dutton described it as a “knock-on effect.”

“Because we lost the wheel… we had to change more brakes than you otherwise would,” Dutton told supercars.com.

“No warm-ups, new brake rules with maximum usage and things like that mean you are compromising with the rear rotor,” he said.

“When you have to put fresh ones on just before a 13-lap sprint, it takes three or four – maybe around here two or three – to get normal balance back and that caught us out.”

As a result, van Gisbergen has plummeted from second to 11^th in the championship.

Kelly Racing was docked 50 points in the teams’ championship for failing to have a judicial camera memory card in Rick Kelly’s Nissan during Sunday’s race. Kelly’s teammate Simona de Silvestro was also served a 5-second time penalty for a collision with James Golding in Race 5.

The issue of centre of gravity has become a talking point following the immediate success of the Mustangs. Ten Supercars, including Mustangs, Holdens and Nissans, underwent testing in Melbourne on Monday.

“Reducing the centre of gravity in a race car improves handling and this can be achieved smartly ballasting a car by keeping weight as low as possibly in the chassis to meet Supercars’ minimum weight figure of 1,395kg,” speedcafe.com explained.

There are currently no regulations regarding centre of gravity in Supercars.

“Well it’s such a critical thing to a race car or any performance vehicle so there really has to be (a stipulation) now, and if there is a difference, we’ll find out,” Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan told speedcafe.com.

A poll conducted by speedcafe.com revealed as of Tuesday more than 61 percent of participants think Supercars should not introduce controls on centre of gravity.

McLaughlin currently leads the 2019 Championship by 31 points ahead of Whincup, who is 32 points ahead of Mostert.

Supercars will return to the track on April 5^th in Tasmania.

By Laura Devoy.