Victory the final hurdle for career-best De Pasquale

Victory remains Anton De Pasquale’s finale hurdle in 2022 after a career-best start to a season.

The Shell V-Power Racing Team driver is second in the standings behind Shane van Gisbergen.

Through five rounds, De Pasquale has smashed his previous bests when it comes to points scored.

De Pasquale has gained a net six positions on his 2021 position after five race meetings.

While he is still winless, he is still 333 points better off versus last year.

Anton De Pasquale: Season-by-season after five rounds

The 26-year-old is one of two drivers, along with David Reynolds, in the top six yet to win a race in 2022.

The next event in Darwin offers a better chance to end that run versus the recent round at Winton.

Shell V-Power Fords claimed all three ARMOR ALL Pole Positions in Darwin last June.

Hidden Valley Raceway was also the site of De Pasquale’s first career victory for Erebus in 2020.

Given Darwin is a three-day event and the team has previous form, De Pasquale is confident he can start a lot more on the front foot.

“Darwin, we’ll be in a bit better shape for,” he told Supercars’ Cool Down Lap podcast.

“We were there last year and nothing’s really changed, apart from [a softer tyre compound].

“We want to know why we weren’t as good as we expected [at Winton].

“In case it happens again this year, we’ll be ready for it.”

Only van Gisbergen has recorded more top 10 finishes than De Pasquale this season.

De Pasquale has finished in the top 10 in 13 of the season’s 15 races.

The times he missed out both came at Albert Park due to tyre dramas.

Key for his title challenge is to maintain consistency and avoid shelling points to van Gisbergen, who is 281 points clear.

De Pasquale has given away on average 55 points per round to van Gisbergen.

Albert Park and Winton, however, were the ones that truly hurt.

Shell V-Power Fords took all three poles in Darwin last year

At the Albert Park and Winton rounds alone, van Gisbergen outscored De Pasquale by a combined 194 points.

Seldom are Shell V-Power cars off the pace two rounds running, something Will Davison reflected on at Winton.

“Like anything in this game, sometimes your strength is your weakness,” said Davison, who won Race 11 in Perth.

“We have got some cool things in the car.

“We were obviously throwing a lot of things at it. The cars are pretty complex these days.

“We had our hands full, put it that way, but the team tried really hard.

“We’re all hurting, but we’ll be right, we’ll come out of this stronger.”

The 2022 season will resume in Darwin on June 17-19. Purchase your tickets now.