Erebus penalised for pitstop incident

Erebus Motorsport has been penalised following a bungled pitstop for Anton De Pasquale in the Saturday race at the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint.

The team has been docked 30 teams’ championship points and fined $10,000, of which $5,000 is suspended until the end of 2019.

De Pasquale pitted from 15th place on lap 15, and was released from his pitbox by the team while the new left-front wheel was still being attached.

The mechanic on the wheel was dragged to the ground as the Commodore pulled away, but escaped injury.

De Pasquale had to pit a lap later in order to have the wheel tightened and went on to finish as the last car on the lead lap in 26th.

“We were chipping away in the first stint and trying to make some ground until we pitted pretty early on,” recounted De Pasquale of his Saturday.

“Unfortunately, we had to pit again because one of the wheels was loose so unfortunately pitting twice in two laps hurts you a lot in such a short race.

“I didn’t really have anyone around me for position after that so I just ran my own race and chipped away at it and managed to get back on the lead lap by the end of it.

“Our race pace certainly wasn’t bad, I think we just need to tune our qualifying package overnight and we’ll be better off [on Sunday].”

Erebus, which was also docked 30 points for a pitstop infringement in Adelaide, remains fourth in the teams’ championship.

The standings are led by Red Bull HRT (3,790 points) from Shell V-Power Racing (3,724), Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing (2,767) and Erebus (2,623).

De Pasquale's team-mate David Reynolds is fourth in the drivers' points, having finished seventh on Saturday.