Kostecki not stressed about costly poor start

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Brodie Kostecki isn’t concerned about his poor start that ultimately cost him the Tasmania finale win to teammate Will Brown.

Kostecki scored both Sunday poles at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, but finished second and third.

The series leader’s performance in the finale fell away after his stop, but even then, he was playing catch-up.

Brown launched into an early lead after Kostecki bogged down, with the #9 leading the #99 to the stops.

From there, Kostecki struggled with his tyres, with Race 11 winner Broc Feeney overhauling the championship leader.

Kostecki was also forced to battle Shane van Gisbergen, who got past before Kostecki retook the place with four laps remaining.

It helped Brown close the gap to 87 points to his teammate, who retained his points lead for the third round in a row.

In the post-race press conference, Brown poked fun at Kostecki after he was asked about the poor start: "Get him thinking about it."

“I'm not gonna think about,” Kostecki replied in jest.

“I know what I did wrong. I just have to tune up a little bit myself, and go again in Darwin.”

Kostecki took responsibility for the bad start, but was thankful he could stay with his teammate in the first stint.

“Will’s done a Supercar start, and I thought it was a burnout competition,” Kostecki said.

“I got a horrible start, but the car had great speed, so I was able to follow Will and gap the field.

“It was a clean race up until the pit stop, then it got pretty wild from my point of view.

“Then I saw the #9 Coca-Cola Camaro disappear into the difference.

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"It was like someone turned the rear grip off, we’ll have to have a look at it.”

The pace drop-off after the stop left Kostecki puzzled, given Brown drove away and he came under attack from both Red Bull Ampol Camaros.

It set up another battle with van Gisbergen, given the pair had already fought vigorously at Albert Park and Perth.

It ultimately fell to Kostecki, who praised his rival for a “clean race”.

“I saw him coming and I thought, ‘Here we go, it’s going to be another one of these battles again’,” he said.

“I was actually looking forward to him coming up behind me. We played. A few games together.

“It was good to battle him out there, and we had a really good clean race.”

The 2023 Supercars season will resume at the betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 16-18.