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TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT – SATURDAY, APRIL 7 – PRACTICE, QUALIFYING AND RACE
 
Fabian Coulthard - No. 12 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Practice 3 – 11th  (Fastest Lap: 51.1819s)
Qualifying - 11th (Fastest Lap: 50.9890s)
Race 7 – 5th(Fastest Lap: 51.6875s)

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

Practice 3 – 3rd  (Fastest Lap: 50.8398s)
Qualifying – 3rd (Fastest Lap: 50.7573s)
Race 7 – 9th (Fastest Lap: 50.5329s)

Recap:  Any race around the bullring that is Symmons Plains Raceway is entertaining, and today's 50 lap, 120km affair was no exception. Scott started the race from 3rd, with Fabian 11th on the grid. A solid start saw Scott slot into p4, with the Holdens of Van Gisbergen, Whincup and Lowndes in front. He maintained that position until his first pit-stop on lap six, responding to Van Gisbergen who stopped one lap earlier. A good stop, and solid strategy call to take two right side tyres only saw him come out right alongside the Red Bull car. A battle down to the hairpin had them bumping doors, until Scott had to yield and slot in behind. Unfortunately, he started to be affected by an issue with the gear shift – the team will investigate if this was electrical or mechanical. This slowed his progress, and he started to slide down the order. He pushed as hard as he was able, and managed to salvage a ninth-place finish. Coulthard on the other hand had pace to burn, and mounted a stellar recovery drive from his 11th place starting point. He got a strong start and took p10 on lap one, moving up the order slowly until his first stop. He again took two right side tyres, and jumped several runners to be in effective seventh place. He then used his pace to clear Scott and Shane Van Gisbergen to get himself into fifth place. This has elevated him into the top 10 in the Drivers' points, in ninth. Scott sits fourth. The team is now third in the standings.

Coulthard Quote: "We missed out on the Top 10 in qualifying by hundredths, and there were a few of us in that bubble. It could have been a totally different outcome this afternoon if we'd been able to get into that final qualifying session, and get further up the grid. The car was awesome in the race, the boys did fantastic pit stops and we were able to race our way to the front, had some good battles with people, make some passes and move forward. We picked our battles, come home fifth and I'm now inside the Top 10 on points. I'm pretty happy with today."

McLaughlin Quote: "I got a reasonable start, but Lowndesy had an absolute ripper next to me and got away. I felt like I had reasonable pace, definitely had more pace than the guys behind me. We had a great pitstop, and came out right alongside Van Gisbergen. Had a good battle with him up to the hairpin, trying to bump draft each other and ended up banging doors. That was pretty cool. Then I started having a problem with our shift cut, which meant that gear changes were pretty difficult. I tried a lot of things to try to get it working properly again, it just didn't work. Great that Fabs came through, and we got both cars into the ten. It's a bit of a ‘what might have been' type of day, I think a strong top-five result went begging, but we'll take a look at it and have another go tomorrow."
 
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
 

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS