Top Ten Finish at The BendAugust 26, 2018The Bend Supersprint – Sunday, August 26 – Qualifying and Race Qualifying – 13th (Fastest Lap: 1m49.7324s) Qualifying – 10th (Fastest Lap: 1m49.6845s) RECAP: Race 23 of the 2018 Supercars Championship was always going to be difficult for Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard, after qualifying 10th and 13th respectively. McLaughlin was up to ninth at the end of the opening lap, taking his first pit service on lap three. Rejoining in 17th, he moved quickly to gain positions, getting to 16th and slotting in immediately behind Shane van Gisbergen after their first stops. At the end of the opening pit stop cycle he was up to 8th, before his second stop on lap 17. It was a longer stop in order to take enough fuel to get to the finish, 24 laps later. After the second stop cycle he was 12th. He then passed cars on track to end up 10th at the chequered flag. McLaughlin is now second in the points, 19 back from Van Gisbergen. Coulthard held 14th off the start after a wild opening lap, until his first stop on lap five. He rejoined 19th, racing back to 13th as the pit stops continued. He passed Waters to gain 12th place before taking his second and final stop on lap 20. After rejoining 17th, he passed cars to be 14th at the finish. He returns to sixth place in the points, with the team still second in the Teams' title. MCLAUGHLIN QUOTE: "We tried every trick in our book this weekend, and unfortunately, we just didn't get there. I'm proud of everyone here, we never stopped trying and kept soldiering on despite the struggles. By the end of the race we'd found a decent balance, so we'll wait a year until we can come back and see if we've cracked it. It's a shame, because we've been strong on the hard tyre at other tracks. We'll regroup, work hard and push on. It was still a decent bag of points. When we have a bad weekend, we need to minimise the damage, which is what we've done." Back to previous page.Copyright ©2008-2016 Penske Racing. All rights reserved |