Anton de Pasquale opens his counter in Darwin

After two podiums in 2019, Anton de Pasquale finally holds his first Victory Lane in Supercars. The driver of the No. 99 Holden Commodore operated by Erebus Motorsport dominated the first race of the weekend in Darwin (Northern Territory) in Australia.

The native of the State of Victoria used a strategy based on the use of two sets of soft tires to achieve his goals, moving back into the peloton in the first part of the race, which had seen Jamie Whincup (Red Bull Holden Racing – Holden) take a time advantage over pole sitter Scott McLaughlin (DJR Team Penske – Ford).

If Mark Winterbottom (Charlie Schwerkolt Racing – Holden) had been at the front for a while, a safety car neutralization occurred for an incident involving Jack Le Brocq (Tickford Racing – Ford) and Rick Kelly (Kelly Racing – Ford) , the latter then coming into contact with Jake Kostecki (Matt Stone Racing – Holden).

Enough to initiate the pit stops, where de Pasquale came out on top on soft tires ahead of Whincup and James Courtney (Team Sydney – Holden), Whincup having chosen the hard tires unlike de Pasquale and Courtney.

The latter managed to quickly take the advantage for second place, before another neutralization for the exit of Macauley Jones (Brad Jones Racing – Holden). Nothing to worry about Pasquale who controls the end of the race and wins ahead of Courtney and Whincup, but the latter is ultimately penalized 15″ for a dangerous restart in the pit lane against Pasquale.

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It was ultimately Scott Pye (Charlie Schwerkolt Racing) who completed the podium ahead of Winterbottom and Chris Pither (Team Sydney). The favorites were all penalized in this event, since in addition to Whincup, ultimately 17th, Scott McLaughlin received the same 15″ penalty, this time for an infraction during the first restart.

The championship leader finished 20th. Shane van Gisbergen (Red Bull Holden Racing) was penalized with a drive-through for contact with Nick Percat (Brad Jones Racing) on ​​the first lap, and finished the event in 11th place.

Race 1 ranking