TOP TEN FINISH AT THE BEND

Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard faced challenging conditions once more in today's 200km race at The Bend. McLaughlin took a hard fought Top 10 placing, after what's been a tough weekend. 

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THE BEND SUPERSPRINT – SUNDAY, AUGUST 26 – QUALIFYING AND RACE

Fabian Coulthard - No. 12 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Qualifying – 13th (Fastest Lap: 1m49.7324s)                       
Race 23 – 14th (Fastest Lap: 1m51.1757s)

Scott McLaughlin - No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Qualifying – 10th (Fastest Lap: 1m49.6845s)                       
Race 23 – 10th (Fastest Lap: 1m50.9595s – Under Old Lap Record)

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.

COULTHARD QUOTE: “The start was OK, I got squeezed and ended up with two wheels on the grass and lost a couple of positions there. From there we got into a groove. The car wasn’t too bad in comparison to yesterday. We’ve definitely improved the car, just not enough improvement. If we can come back her enext year on the soft tyre it will be a different beast. Everyone here at Shell V-Power Racing Team worked really hard, got our cars back to a place where they were at least predictable. We’ve got plenty to look at and no doubt we’ll come back stronger next time out at Sandown.”

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.”

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
 
1. Shane Van Gisbergen 2778 
2. Scott McLaughlin        2759 -19
3. Jamie Whincup            2416 -362
4. Craig Lowndes 2229 -549
5. David Reynolds  2213 -565
6. Fabian Coulthard 1922 -856
7. Rick Kelly 1918 -860
8. Chaz Mostert 1892 -886
9. Tim Slade 1742 -1036
10. Scott Pye 1702 -1076

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
 
1. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Whincup/SVG) 5194 
2. Shell V-Power Racing Team  4681 -513
3. Brad Jones Racing 3435 -1759
4. Tickford Racing (Mostert/Winterbottom) 3424 -1770
5. Erebus Motorsport              3328 -1866
6. Walkinshaw Andretti United 3184 -2010
7. Nissan Motorsport (Kelly/Heimgartner) 3072 -2122
8. NISMO (Caruso/De Silvestro) 2396 -2798
9. Garry Rogers Motorsport 2381 -2813
10. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Lowndes) 2229 -2965