Scott McLaughlin wins Bathurst Top 10 Shootout

October 12, 2019

Fabian Coulthard & Tony D'Alberto - No. 12 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Practice 6 – 2nd (Fastest Lap: 2m04.7595s)
Practice 7 – 16th (Fastest Lap: 2m05.4777s)
Top 10 Shootout – N/A
 
Scott McLaughlin & Alex Prémat - No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Practice 6 – 5th (Fastest Lap: 2m05.2806s)
Practice 7 – 2nd (Fastest Lap: 2m03.6965s)
Top 10 Shootout – 1st (Fastest Lap: 2m03.3783s – New Lap Record)
 
RECAP: Scott McLaughlin has smashed his own lap record around the Mount Panorama circuit in the Top 10 Shootout in Bathurst today.
 
Rolling out of pitlane as the final car in the famous Top 10 Shootout, McLaughlin had Chaz Mostert as his target as he ran around the 6.2km circuit.
 
Ultimately McLaughlin was just over four-tenths of a second clear of the field, with a lap-record 2m03.3783s lap time.
 
It was his 15th Pole Position of the 2019 season, and his second at Bathurst after his then record-breaking effort back in 2017.
 
Earlier in the day Practice 6 and 7 saw the Car 12 crew of Fabian Coulthard and Tony D'Alberto working on their race set-up, with them due to start 16th for tomorrow's 1000km, 161-lap race.
 
McLaughlin's co-driver Alex Prémat spent the full 30-minute Practice 6 behind the wheel of Car 17, putting in strong laps as he prepares to partner the Championship leader tomorrow.
 
The race starts at 11:30am local time tomorrow morning, with many pundits predicting a record sub-six-hour race time.

COULTHARD QUOTE: "Unfortunately we weren't in the shootout due to some issues with the car yesterday, so today was all about using the two practice sessions to get Car 12 set up for the 1000km tomorrow. We spent the time working on our race car, and we tried a few things that helped, and we have a couple of things to try in the warm-up tomorrow so come race time we'll be good to go."

MCLAUGHLIN QUOTE: "Wow. That's just incredible. I was hanging on for dear life there. That in-lap was pretty impressive, I've never seen so many people cheering us on. I'm really proud of the team at Shell V-Power Racing, far out this car is a rocket ship and it just hooked up in those conditions. I'm just pumped. Coming down the hill, I was pretty fast and thought ‘jeez, I've just got to hold onto the thing'. Then just threw it into the Chase and the last corner and it held on, it stuck well. We've got one big one to get tomorrow, that's what I'm focused on a lot more, but we've qualified now and we're starting from the best possible position."

D'ALBERTO QUOTE: "We've spent the day working on race pace in Car 12, and I think it feels pretty good. Starting 16th, we know we have a good car, it was fast in the dry conditions today and we're expecting a dry race tomorrow so it should be a good one!"

PRÉMAT QUOTE: "That was pretty cool to watch, and to be in the garage with the team in that moment feeling all of the emotion. Scott is driving so well right now, and he just executed perfectly on that lap. We start from the best possible position tomorrow, but we still have a job to do tomorrow and we will now focus to get the job done and clinch the victory for the team.