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Mostert: I raced hard with everybody

26 Jun 2014
Young gun mature about Lowndes contact in Sunday's race and doesn't buy into war of words.
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Young gun Chaz Mostert was mature about contact with Craig Lowndes in Sunday's race, saying he raced hard but fair with the Red Bull heavyweight.

While his competitor's team boss didn't hold back his opinions, Mostert said it was just racing, and that he and Lowndes had not had any words post-race.

"It's hard for me to say," the Ford Pepsi Max racer told v8supercars.com.au when first asked about the incident.

"We had the Safety Car come out, basically we were at the front of the grid, we were in second.

"We were probably on older tyres but I knew I had to hold on for about 10 or 15 laps on the tyres, so most people had passed me ... Craig didn't quite get the move done a couple of corners before and when we came out of turn seven there I was just driving around there on my normal line and then I felt a punch in the back, and then really big hit in the back and all of a sudden I see a bit of a gap behind me.

"So I'm not too sure really what happened or anything like that, but pretty unfortunate for him to pop his wheel off the tyre or whatever happened, but I couldn't do anything about that and it's just the way it goes."

Mostert dismissed Dane's criticism of his driving, putting it down to racing as usual. There was no investigation from the stewards of any incident between the two during the race.

"It's always going to come back to, why didn't you let him go a corner earlier or something like that, but it's racing," the 22-year old said.

"We're out there to try our hardest - we are out there trying out hardest, why wouldn't we be doing that?

"He (Lowndes) didn't quite get the move done in the corner before, so I had no choice.

"If I was to let him go I would have cost myself another three positions on the next corner, so you have to assess it and that's what I did. And unfortunately he was a little impatient later, he clipped my tyre, and ruined their own race. It's unfortunate, you never want to be involved in things like that but it's the way it is."

Mostert and eventual race winner, teammate Mark Winterbottom, split soft tyre strategies on Sunday with Mostert's coming off second best. He ended up sailing home 15th, while Lowndes was 17th and lost plenty of ground on Winterbottom in the points.

But regardless of the Championship, Mostert was adamant it wasn't a matter of who he was racing - there was no focus on defending for his teammate.

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"I did it with everybody - I raced hard with everybody out there.

"It wasn't a point of who is in the Championship and who's not - that's silly. I race everyone out there as hard as I can.

"You've got to be nice to your teammates if you're in a worse situation sometimes, it's easy to let your teammates go when you're on different tyres, and stuff like that - and Frosty did that for me in Perth.

"But it's just the way it is, it's racing and I haven't had any words with Craig about it and he hasn't had any words with me about it. You just have to be as patient as you can.

"You know you're on better tyres, you've got to pick your time, pick the corner and stuff like that. In the second stint I did the same thing, I was behind him for four or five corners, I couldn't get through a couple of corners but I waited for the right time, got past and got the job done."

It's not the first time Mostert has been involved in a high profile clash, after an incident with Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander at the Rolex Australian Grand Prix earlier this year.

Both Mostert and team boss Tim Edwards had implied Tander had raced harder against him because he was a young up-and-comer. The HRT star obliterated the theory, and after analysis was found to be the innocent party by the Stewards.

This time clashing with Lowndes, it rings true that he is playing with the big boys this year, as a factory team driver and one of the top 10 in the Championship points (Mostert sits ninth, falling one spot after Sunday's race).

"I guess that's the first time I haven't really come off second best, which is quite interesting," Mostert said.

"We're just doing our own thing, we had better pace on the Sunday which was good and really looking forward to getting to Townsville.

"We're in the top 10 in the Championship so pretty ecstatic about that.

"We always knew Darwin was going to be pretty tough for us but we got through it, we survived, we've got a straight car, we're going to Townsville - another awesome event where there's great people.

"So we're really looking forward to getting up there and seeing what we can do."

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