McLaughlin glad he and Waters cleared the air
Scott McLaughlin was pleased he and Cameron Waters talked through their pre-race Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 incident on Saturday evening, before getting back on track.
Set to start on the front row for Saturday's third race of the weekend at Albert Park, the Mustangs of McLaughlin and Waters made contact on their way to the grid.
The ensuing damage ruled both drivers out of proceedings, ending McLaughlin's perfect run of victories to start the 2019 season.
Waters sought McLaughlin out shortly afterwards, a conversation that ended with a handshake, while stewards reviewed the incident but took no action.
Both drivers were on-track again on Sunday, Shell V-Power Racing's McLaughlin getting back to winning ways and Waters finishing fourth.
"I was glad he came and we cleared the air," McLaughlin said.
"It was just one of those unfortunate incidents. I looked in my mirror just before he obviously ducked right and I thought he was staying where he was because Chaz [Mostert] had just passed me.
"I've obviously turned when he's gone. It was just an absolute cluster.
"Can't do anything about it, we've just got to move on.
"He said he ruined his own race, I said it doesn't really make mine any better, but at the end of the day we just move on, we're big boys."
To that point, McLaughlin had won all four races in 2019 and clocked a perfect score of 450 points.
Saturday evening's heat was one of the longer, 100-point affairs at Albert Park, with McLaughlin ultimately finishing sixth in the weekend's Larry Perkins Trophy points.
He still leaves Melbourne with a 31-point championship lead over Jamie Whincup, though.
"It was frustrating but you can't change time," he said.
"You've just got to get on with things and be motivated that we've got a fast car.
"It's going to be a ding-dong battle all year, absolutely we probably missed an opportunity.
"But at the end of the day we're in a better position than what we were the last few years. Hopefully that bodes well."
In Sunday's finale, McLaughlin got the jump off the line to lead ARMOR ALL Polesitter Chaz Mostert into Turn 1 and never looked back.
"Yesterday I was a bit of a half-job Harry," McLaughlin said.
"But obviously today was all about the start, getting track position and we had a fast car, as did Chaz.
"It was full-qualifying laps there the whole time, pushing bloody hard, especially after that Safety Car restart. It was a good battle."
