Mostert wins Race 6, van Gisbergen recovers to third

Chaz Mostert has won a dramatic Albert Park opener headlined by Shane van Gisbergen’s charge to third.

Mostert’s 18th career victory was his second win of the season and third at Albert Park.

Pole-sitter David Reynolds recovered to second, but the biggest recovery of all went to van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen, who started 23rd, fought through the field and crossed the line 9.4s behind Mostert.

"Any time you win in this category is amazing,” Mostert said.

"The car’s getting faster and faster.

"After Tassie, it’s good to get a trophy for the guys and girls at WAU."

The race ended in disaster for the Shell V-Power Racing Team, which held one-two running with seven laps remaining.

Anton De Pasquale suffered a tyre failure and finished 23rd, with Will Davison stopping twice and finishing 16th.

With De Pasquale down the order, van Gisbergen extended his championship lead from 67 to 113 points.

Reynolds won the race to Turn 1, with Mostert slotting into second.

As the leaders squabbled, van Gisbergen commenced his march forward.

After two laps, van Gisbergen had moved to 14th position.

Mostert, with teammate Nick Percat in tow, hounded an ailing Reynolds and cleared the pole-sitter at the end of lap 3.

Davison led a gaggle of cars into pit lane at the end of lap 3 and took on Soft tyres.

De Pasquale, who started second, took on Soft tyres of his own on the following lap.

Reynolds’ struggles were compounded once Percat took second position. By then, Reynolds was already 2.8s behind Mostert.

Mostert and Reynolds stopped at the end of lap 7, with the former slotting into effective third behind De Pasquale and Davison.

Van Gisbergen followed Jones and Percat in for his compulsory stop on lap 8, and emerged down the order.

De Pasquale assumed the lead once Tim Slade stopped on lap 10, and led Davison by 2.3s.

Mostert, meanwhile, hounded Davison and made the pass stick at Turn 13 on lap 12.

De Pasquale, on Softs, was caught in quick time by the Hard-shod Mostert, who took the lead on lap 14.

Mostert pushed his lead over to De Pasquale to 3.8s with five laps remaining, with Davison a further 2.9s in arrears.

Reynolds, who had found greater balance on Hard tyres, cleared Davison for third at the end of lap 16.

At the other end of pit straight, De Pasquale’s front-left tyre gave way, sending the #11 Shell Ford into the gravel.

Davison was muscled out of the way by a fighting van Gisbergen and Percat, and reverted to Hard tyres.

All the while, De Pasquale limped his car to pit lane with a deflated tyre.

It did little to deter Mostert, who raced away to his first win since Race 2 at Sydney Motorsport Park.

It was also Mostert's first win at Albert Park since 2019, when he also won the Larry Perkins Perpetual Trophy.

Cars will return to the track at Saturday for Race 7 at 10:25am AEST.