RED BULL WINS AGAIN AS BROWN TAKES CONTROL

Red Bull Ampol Racing have gone two-from-two in the MSS Melbourne Supersprint at the F1 Australian Grand Prix.

For a while it looked like another lock out for the Triple Eight Camaros with Race 1 winner Broc Feeney trailing Brown, though a late race mishap saw Feeney drop off the podium. Pole sitter Cameron Waters was another to find himself moving the wrong way as the race progressed.

Waters had placed the Monster Energy Mustang on pole position with Brown and Feeney lurking ominously behind, while Mark Winterbottom had his best qualifying result in quite a while, putting the DEWALT Racing Team 18 Camaro fourth on the grid.

As the race began, Waters was under immediate pressure from Brown to his right and Feeney on the left. Waters moved right in attempt to cover the inside line, but it was already too late, as Brown swept past at the first corner. Feeney sat just behind Waters through the opening corners as Winterbottom and Payne touched as the battled for fourth.

TFH Racing duo Jack Le Brocq and Todd Hazelwood sat inside the top ten through Turns 3 and 4 as the field looked to establish track position. Anton De Pasquale was a first lap casualty in the bump and grind with Payne and Winterbottom. A tap from Payne sent De Pasquale off line with damage and he trailed the field as he brought the Shell V-Power Mustang back to the pitlane.

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Thomas Randle was another to run off track after contact with Wood on the main Straight had the Castrol Mustang skate across the grass at Turn one.

Waters stayed with the Red Bull Ampol Racing duo for a while before slipping back down the field. By Lap 11 then Monster Energy Mustang had slipped to seventh, some 2 seconds clear of Le Brocq and Hazelwood.

A later mishap for Feeney dropped the #88 off the podium, with Winterbottom up to second and Payne in third.

The leaders finished in that order, with Brown taking the win from Winterbottom and Payne.

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Feeney, Davison, Percat, Waters, Le Brocq, Hazelwood and Slade rounded out the Top 10.

“It was great to get the lead at the start of the race. I had to get past Cam pretty quickly to save the tyres around here because it was a pretty hot day on track today,” Brown told Red Bull Ampol Racing Media.

“I wanted to get in the lead early and maintain it from there, which I managed to do while the guys had a lot of fun battling it out behind me – I was actually enjoying watching it. I was conserving a fair bit of the time during the race, but I was pushing pretty hard at the end. If you push too hard in those early laps, we saw a couple of guys blister their tyres yesterday and I think there were a couple today from what I’ve heard. That’s something you have to manage while still being fast, which I was trying to do. Unfortunately for Broc, he made a little mistake on the last lap and we didn’t get a one-two like yesterday which would have been very disappointing for him, but a good day for us overall.”

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Second place for Winterbottom gave Team 18 their first podium of 2024 and brought a huge boost for the season ahead.

“What a mega day,” Winterbottom exclaimed to Team 18 media.

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“I’m so proud of the team and to get a trophy and finish second is a great result. 

“I’m really excited about the year. I think the team is in a really good place. We’ve got lots of new people and maintained a lot of the good crew we had and together the recipes are coming together. The goal was to fill that trophy cabinet and I’ve got one step closer to putting one in there. So all in all a great day.

“I’m proud of everyone and fingers crossed this is the start of good things to come. We’ll go again tomorrow. We don’t get time to celebrate. We’ll go again tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll reflect come Sunday night on a strong result.”

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