Luckless Stanaway undone by Kostecki contact
Richie Stanaway drops from seventh to 21st in Race 5
PremiAir Camaro suffers suspension damage in mid-race contact
Teammate James Golding 13th after Thursday incident
23rd, DNF, 17th, 16th and 21st.
It’s clearly not the start to life at PremiAir Racing that Richie Stanaway would have hoped for, yet luck has clearly deserted the Kiwi in Melbourne.
Stanaway arrived at Albert Park with the bit between his teeth after a rotten Sydney, and powered back to form with dual qualifying results of seventh.
However, the 2023 Bathurst winner was sent into a spin on Thursday in a battle involving Chaz Mostert, Cooper Murray and Nick Percat, and ended up 16th.
Come Friday, and as teammate James Golding raced from 11th to 13th, Stanaway was again left to rue what could have been after copping suspension damage amid more drama.
Stanaway held seventh through the first Safety Car period, triggered by a crash for Jack Le Brocq. On the restart, Ryan Wood — who then copped a drive-through penalty — got by into eighth.
On lap 5, Stanaway came under fire from Brodie Kostecki and Anton De Pasquale. As they rounded Turn 4, Stanaway and Kostecki made wheel-to-wheel contact, before the #62 copped another hit from De Pasquale.
The ailing Stanaway then fell behind Chaz Mostert, Matt Payne and Kai Allen, before being picked off by Golding, Macauley Jones, Will Davison, Bryce Fullwood, James Courtney, Jaxon Evans, Aaron Cameron and Thomas Randle.
Where seventh at worst was achievable, Stanaway dropped to 21st. Suspension damage hobbled the #62, but Stanaway persevered and brought home what points he could.
“It was a disappointing race, I got caught up in some battles and got some car damage on the way through, so I just had to try and finish,” he said.
"There was probably enough steering and suspension damage to warrant coming into pit lane, but as there were only a few laps left I had to just bring the car home.
"It was a really disappointing race for sure, but there is a lot we can learn from it. We have new qualifying tomorrow, so we are focusing on that and trying to qualify a bit further up the grid.”
Cars will return to the track on Saturday morning for dual Boost Mobile Qualifying sessions from 9:05am local time, with Race 6 to commence at 5:40pm.
