De Pasquale: Safety Car worked in Mostert’s favour

The late-race Safety Car proved pivotal in Chaz Mostert hanging on, says Anton De Pasquale.

Mostert held off De Pasquale in the thrilling Merlin Darwin Triple Crown finale.

De Pasquale had four tyres which were 10 laps younger than Mostert, who only took on two.

Mostert stopped on lap 9 and was fitted with two tyres, and gained track position over De Pasquale.

A late BP Ultimate Safety Car intervention bunched the field together.

Critically, it bought Mostert time, with De Pasquale catching the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Commodore at a rate of knots.

In the end, Mostert had enough tyre life to cling onto his fourth win of 2022, and 20th of his career.

De Pasquale lauded his rival, but admitted the Safety Car scuppered his charge.

“Chaz put up a really good fight,” he told Supercars’ Cool Down Lap podcast.

“The Safety Car worked in his favour a bit, it brought the tyres back.

“With the higher psi, it’s really difficult to pass.

“It’s really good. We came away with the most points, so we’re happy.”

Mostert also conceded the Safety Car played into his hands: "I think the Safety Car also saved me.

“Looking at the mirror, watching Anton track me down, obviously I got a few laps to bring the tyres back a little bit and was able to get them back.

“But I think the race panned out in our way even though it looked like it wasn't supposed to.”

De Pasquale and the Shell V-Power Racing Team were later cleared of a pit lane infringement.

De Pasquale scored the most points for the weekend and also secured his first victory of the season on the Saturday.

With Shane van Gisbergen striking drama in Race 18, De Pasquale is now a reduced 214 points from the series leader.

While pleased to finally score a win, De Pasquale reiterated it had been a long time coming.

“No monkey off the back kind of stuff,” he said of his Saturday win.

“We’ve been up there the whole year, we’ve had chances, we just didn’t execute when we had to.

“We did that this weekend."

The season will resume in Townsville next month.