DAVISON WINS DRAMATIC AND CONTROVERSIAL ENCOUNTER
Will Davison took victory in what was a dramatic and controversial Supercars Championship race in Perth.
For Davison and Ford it was there first Supercars race win of the season and for Davison his first since the Bathurst 1000 back in 2016.
The controversial moment came when Davison on fresh tyres made a move up the inside of Cameron Waters for the lead on lap 26.
Waters had just come out the pits while Davison on warm tyres was able to make his move.
The pair made contact at Turn 7 with Waters running wide and around the kerb on the outside of the track to hold position.
As a result, Waters was handed a five second penalty, a penalty he did not agree with.
Although Waters crossed the line first, it was Will Davison that took the race win by 2s from his Dick Johnson Racing teammate (pictured above by Ross Gibb Photography).
Waters started from second but overtook Davison on the run into Turn 1, he led the first stint of the race before the incident occurred.
Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgartner took four new tyres in the pit stop and a late race safety car certainly benefited him.
Heimgartner marched forward to claim his first podium with the Albury based outfit.
The five second penalty demoted Waters to fourth, the Tickford Racing driver was the biggest loser of the late race safety car as it bunched the field together.
Similar to Heimgartner, championship leader Shane van Gisbergen pitted late and took three tyres enabling him to move up to fifth in the closing laps, a good recovery after starting from 11th on the grid.
Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown looked set to finish in third and fourth, however in the closing laps Brown broke down resulting in the late race safety car.
This did not benefit his teammate who had little grip left and finished the race in sixth.
James Courtney and Broc Feeney both moved up a place late on when Jake Kostecki ran wide at Turn 1. Kostecki finished in ninth ahead of Todd Hazelwood.
The race was delayed for nearly an hour following a lap 1 crash for Scott Pye. At the end of lap 1 the Team 18 driver attempted to cover his line and hold his position from Jack Le Brocq.
The pair made contact on pit straight with Pye ending up spinning backwards into the pit wall.
Pye’s car was damaged extensively, fortunately he was able to hop out unhurt.
The lengthy delay was due to wall repairs as Pye hit a gate in which teams walked through onto the grid. The damaged gate had to be welded shut before racing could continue.
Lee Holdsworth and Thomas Randle also collided on the opening lap on the run up to Turn 2, they went down a lap, however the red flag allowed repairs to be made and they could re-join the race.
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