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Queensland Supercars: McLaughlin wins after late van Gisbergen duel

Scott McLaughlin held off a hard-charging Shane van Gisbergen to triumph in a tense Sunday Supercars showdown at Ipswich's Queensland Raceway

The race boiled down to a thrilling battle between the two drivers, with long-time leader McLaughlin coming under serious pressure from van Gisbergen in the closing stages.

After a five-lap nose-to-tail battle, it was the points leader that held on for a 0.7s victory as Chaz Mostert took a distant third for Tickford Racing.

For the second day running, McLaughlin came under fire through the first two corners at the start, but he staved off a Mostert challenge and held onto the lead.

From there McLaughlin was able to control the opening stint, pulling three seconds on Mostert and the field before making his first stop on lap 15 of 65.

McLaughlin retained the effective lead but the pitstops shook up the order behind him.

Jamie Whincup moved up to second thanks to taking his pitstop a lap earlier than McLaughlin, while Mostert stayed out until lap 19 and took on more fuel than the rest of the leaders, which dropped him to fourth behind van Gisbergen.

As McLaughlin continued to lead to the tune of five seconds, van Gisbergen's race came alive in the second stint.

Approaching half-distance, he had managed to erase the 4s gap over Whincup, breezing past his team-mate into second place.

Little changed for the front two during the second round of stops as he McLaughlin took an advantage of a little under five seconds into his mid-point pitstop.

The gap was sitting at around 4.5s once van Gisbergen had stopped a lap later.

There was a change behind them though, with Mostert using his fuel advantage to jump Whincup as the pair followed McLaughlin in.

Van Gisbergen made good ground over the final stint and moved to within 1.5s of the leader with 10 laps to go.

With five laps to go, McLaughlin and van Gisbergen were separated by just 0.5s but, despite van Gisbergen's best efforts, McLaughlin was able to hang on to take a hard-fought win.

Mostert was 10s down the road in third, while Whincup ended up a further seven seconds behind back in fourth.

Will Davison backed up his Saturday podium with a fifth ahead of Tickford team-mate Cam Waters and Nissan drivers Andre Heimgartner and Rick Kelly.

Holden stars Nick Percat and Mark Winterbottom rounded out the top 10.

The biggest loser in terms of the championship was Fabian Coulthard after an early clash with Anton De Pasquale sent him off the road and out of contention for a decent result.

He finished the race down in 18th and, while he was able to hang on to second in the standings, the gap to his team-mate is now a whopping 433 points.

Race result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Scott McLaughlin DJR Penske Ford 65 1h18m18.3804s
2 Shane van Gisbergen Triple Eight Holden 65 0.7006s
3 Chaz Mostert Tickford Ford 65 10.6470s
4 Jamie Whincup Triple Eight Holden 65 17.2252s
5 Will Davison 23Red Racing Ford 65 18.0331s
6 Cameron Waters Tickford Ford 65 37.4851s
7 Andre Heimgartner Kelly Nissan 65 45.3193s
8 Rick Kelly Kelly Nissan 65 45.5361s
9 Nick Percat Brad Jones Holden 65 47.0848s
10 Mark Winterbottom Schwerkolt Holden 65 47.5200s
11 Anton De Pasquale Erebus Holden 65 48.2074s
12 James Courtney Walkinshaw Holden 65 50.9941s
13 Todd Hazelwood Matt Stone Holden 65 55.3236s
14 Lee Holdsworth Tickford Ford 65 55.5156s
15 James Golding GRM Holden 65 56.7064s
16 Scott Pye Walkinshaw Holden 65 1m10.6264s
17 Tim Slade Brad Jones Holden 65 1m10.9933s
18 Fabian Coulthard DJR Penske Ford 65 1m11.3503s
19 Simona de Silvestro Kelly Nissan 65 1m11.8195s
20 Michael Caruso GRM Holden 65 1m11.9913s
21 David Reynolds Erebus Holden 64 1 Lap
22 Macauley Jones Blanchard/BJR Holden 64 1 Lap
23 Jack Le Brocq Tekno Holden 63 2 Laps
- Garry Jacobson Kelly Nissan 49 Retirement

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver Points
1 Scott McLaughlin 2438
2 Fabian Coulthard 2005
3 Shane van Gisbergen 1918
4 Chaz Mostert 1898
5 Jamie Whincup 1798
6 David Reynolds 1760
7 Cameron Waters 1600
8 Will Davison 1523
9 Nick Percat 1495
10 Lee Holdsworth 1383
11 Anton De Pasquale 1335
12 James Courtney 1264
13 Andre Heimgartner 1232
14 Mark Winterbottom 1231
15 Tim Slade 1203
16 Scott Pye 1075
17 Rick Kelly 1074
18 Todd Hazelwood 1054
19 James Golding 1001
20 Simona de Silvestro 937
21 Jack Le Brocq 742
22 Macauley Jones 717
23 Garry Jacobson 668
24 Richie Stanaway 482
25 Michael Caruso 222
26 Jack Smith 219
27 Chris Pither 159
28 Tim Blanchard 93


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