It was a tough start to the Gold Coast 500 weekend for the team with Chaz Mostert finishing 8th and Nick Percat 18th in Race 25 of the 2023 Supercars Championship.
The day started off with a qualifying session in the morning, with the fastest 10 cars taking on a lap to themselves around the streets of Surfers Paradise in the Top 10 Shootout.
Nick got caught up in traffic on his flying lap of quali so missed out on the Top 10 shootout, starting the 85-lap race in 14th.
Chaz put together a strong qualifying lap securing a spot in the shootout with P9, after pushing the car to its limits he secured a third row start for the race.
As the sun was shining for the first-time during weekend, the lights went out for the first of two 250km races. Both drivers had a strong start off the line, with Chaz up two positions to fourth and Nick up one.
Running a longer first stint strategy, the Mobil 1 Optus Racing Car 25 came into the pits on lap 27 for four fresh tyres and some fuel with the Mobil 1 NTI Racing Car 2 following close behind on lap 28.
Nick got pinged with a 5-second penalty which he took during his second pitstop, unfortunately Chaz also received one but in his final stint so dropped down to finish P8 with Nick taking home P18.
The cars didn’t quite have the race pace to be in the fight today, so there is plenty of homework to do tonight. We will come back swinging tomorrow in qualifying where cars will hit the track at 10.05am AEST.
Chaz Mostert
“Bit of a tough afternoon for us today, didn’t really have the tyre life early in the race we needed which hurt, but we fought on with what we had to the end – the car seemed to get better at the end there so it’s a shame we didn’t jag a safety car.
“We will put our heads together across both cars tonight and see what we can do tomorrow, thanks to everyone for the support.”
Nick Percat
“We struggled a little bit with the race car today which meant it was a long afternoon out there today. I think we have some good direction on the quali car, so everyone’s already into it tonight as a team to see what we can do tomorrow, to round out the weekend on a high.”