Mostert relieved with podium amid Super Soft questions

Chaz Mostert puts Super Soft concerns at ease with podium
Mostert just 0.6s from victory after starting fifth
WAU star now just 63 points behind Will Brown

Chaz Mostert was delighted to reward Walkinshaw Andretti United with a crucial podium in Tasmania, following weeks of questions over the team’s form on the Super Soft tyre.

Mostert was just 0.6s from victory on Saturday at Symmons Plains, with the WAU star benefiting from a bold strategy to finish second.

It was a stark contrast to the previous Super Soft round in Darwin, where Mostert and teammate Ryan Wood were unable to crack the top 20 in qualifying.

Come Saturday, and Mostert emerged fifth in a chaotic qualifying session to put himself in the game, and armed with three tyres at his stop, fought through to second behind winner Nick Percat.

Mostert admitted he “ran out of puff” to ultimately overhaul Percat, but hailed the strategy call to give him a grip advantage on Cam Waters and Broc Feeney in the run home.

Critically, Mostert slashed the deficit to Will Brown from 105 to 63 points, the closest it has been since the Grand Prix in March.

“I was just trying my hardest, but I had to drive pretty hard,” Mostert said.

“Obviously a different tyre strategy for us today, I had to use the tyre a lot to make up the lap time. The thing just ran out of puff towards the end.

“I was driving really hard to pass those couple of guys, but I'm pretty happy with that result. Our race car was probably a little on the aggressive side, so we’ll look at data tonight.

“Credit to the whole team, great strategy call, just good to see Nick get a win… just ran out of tyre and ran out of laps.”

For one night at least, WAU is able to put to bed its fears with the Super Soft, but Mostert says there’s still work to do to be the benchmark at Symmons Plains.

“It was good to be able to reward the guys with second, after coming here with a lot of question marks,” he said.

“Still got a bit of work to do tomorrow, that’s for sure, we’ll see what the weather’s like.

“It’s going to be quite tricky for us tomorrow, we’ve got to get into the books tonight and tune it up, but super stoked to get starting position five today."

Supercars will return on Sunday with Practice 3 at 10:20am AEST, followed by Boost Mobile Qualifying at 12:50pm and Race 18 at 3:05pm.