Fabian Coulthard - No. 12 Shell V-Power Racing Ford
Practice 1 – 14th (Fastest Lap: 1m20.8981s)
Qualifying – 2nd (Fastest Lap: 1m20.8919s)
Race 13 – 15th (Fastest Lap: 1m20.5152s)
Scott McLaughlin - No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford
Practice 1 – 2nd (Fastest Lap: 1m19.8877s)
Qualifying – 5th (Fastest Lap: 1m21.3879s)
Race 13 – 1st (Fastest Lap: 1m20.2031s - fastest lap of the race)
RECAP: After an action packed qualifying session, Race 13 saw Fabian Coulthard start from the front row of the grid, with Scott McLaughlin fifth.
A mad scramble of an opening lap saw Coulthard grab the lead from pole-sitter Mostert before running wide at Turn 3. Coulthard and a fast-starting McLaughlin were then side-by-side through the Turn 5 sweeper, making slight contact that sent them both off the track.
Coulthard rejoined at the back of the pack, while McLaughlin continued across the circuit to re-enter between turns 7 and 8, in third position.
The incident was reviewed by the stewards, with Coulthard receiving a 15-second time penalty. McLaughlin was cleared of any wrong doing, based on the driver's briefing notes that said cars had to rejoin the circuit before the Turn 9 flag point.
Coulthard served the time penalty at his pit stop, which again pushed him down the order where he had to mount a recovery drive to salvage a result.
McLaughlin drove well across the race to put himself into a winning position, coming out in the final stint in the lead once all cars had taken their stop.
Coulthard executed a great driver to finish the race in 15th position, salvaging a reasonable result after an eventful race, maintaining his second place in the Championship.
McLaughlin took his ninth win of 2019, to extend his points lead to 232 points over Coulthard, who remains second, 129 in front of Shane van Gisbergen.
The team continues to lead the Teams' points by 586 over Triple 8.
COULTHARD QUOTE: "I think when you can replay moments over and over you can get a much better analysis of things, but we as drivers operate in an environment where you have to make decisions in split seconds. We have to make decisions in those moments, and sometimes if you could hit the rewind button, you would. You never want to hit your teammate, and I’ve put my hand up to apologise. Our policy is that we don’t hit each other, and today I broke that policy. The good news is that we have a fast car, we're a great team and we’ll be back to fight again tomorrow."
MCLAUGHLIN QUOTE: "That was a full-on race. I got a good start and got to the racing line. The seas pretty much parted for me all the way to Turn 4 and I got around the outside of Fabian and then we came together at Turn 5, and I was off and across the grass. We’ve talked about it, and it’s all good – no hard feelings. We’re professionals, and we’re ready to go again tomorrow. It was a split-second decision, not something we want to see but we recovered well in the end. I’m just stoked to take another win, this season is going incredibly well for our team. Hopefully we can get both cars back up there again tomorrow."