Feeney arrived on the Australian Grand Prix second within the factors however, after taking pole place for the weekend’s opening race, might solely watch on as Anton de Pasquale took an early lead within the shortened 18-lap race.
However the positions swapped again earlier than the tip of the primary lap, with Feeney passing Dick Johnson Racing driver de Pasquale. The latter’s day continued to worsen as Will Brown and Matt Payne additionally progressed previous the Shell-liveried Ford Mustang within the early phases.
The 2 Pink Bull Ampol drivers and Payne – of Grove Racing – pulled away on the entrance and have been capable of take care of their tyres on a observe a lot cooler than it had been in afternoon qualifying.
Payne’s third place was considerably fortuitously protected by the automotive behind. Nick Percat was hit with a five-second penalty after early-race contact with Chaz Mostert so whereas the Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet driver was exhibiting podium tempo, he was by no means going to get the end result that it could in any other case deserve. Simply as properly; Payne ran vast on the ultimate lap and Percat bought previous, although the penalty dropped him to sixth place.
Transferring as much as fourth was Mostert, who recovered properly to retake lots of the locations he had misplaced late within the race, and Cam Waters, whose brand-new Tickford Mustang appeared far more aggressive than the automotive he raced within the opening spherical of the championship final month at Bathurst.
They have been properly away from a battle for the minor placings that noticed, at one stage mid-race, 10 vehicles combating inside two seconds. De Pasquale salvaged seventh forward of the Blanchard Racing Team Ford of James Courtney.
To rub salt into the injuries of the opposition, each Feeney and Brown set their quickest laps on the ultimate circuit, although Feeney’s quicker lap earned him an additional 5 championship factors.
Broc Feeney, Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Photograph by: Edge Photographics
That quickest lap implies that Feeney now leads the championship factors however narrowly, his 359 simply two factors over Brown. In third place is Mostert (327) forward of Payne (238) and Percat (237).
“That was an attention-grabbing race, we simply tried to handle it as finest as we might out entrance,” mentioned Feeney after the race, which he received by 2.32 seconds. “It has been a busy day, pole, and win and quickest lap.
“He [Brown] had some actual good tempo on the finish, I simply tried to place the hammer down on the finish.”
Brown admitted that had the automotive in entrance not been his teammate, the second half of the race might need been completely different.
“He [Feeney] had fairly good velocity, it could have been good to have a little bit of a go. If it was another person there, it could have been on!”
Payne was philosophical after his last-lap scare.
“We had a little bit of velocity in qualifying and I knew it was going to be robust racing. I made a reasonably dangerous mistake on the final nook, I grabbed each pedals. I knew Percat had a five-second penalty so I wasn’t that fussed!”
Friday’s second race will likely be over 20 laps and qualifying has already been held, with Waters to begin from pole place forward Brown, Feeney and Mark Winterbottom (Chevrolet).
Supercars Albert Park – Race 1 outcomes