WAU team-mates disagree over clash

Walkinshaw Andretti United team-mates James Courtney and Scott Pye disagree over who’s to blame for their opening-lap clash at Queensland Raceway.

The cars of Courtney and Tickford Racing’s Mark Winterbottom were forced to pit to repair damage after a melee at Turn 4 on the first of 65 laps.

Pye had ranged down the inside of Courtney into the corner, as Courtney was also making an inside move on Winterbottom.

The two Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Holdens made minor side-to-side contact, while a hit between Courtney’s right-front and Winterbottom’s left-rear spun the Ford.

Winterbottom said he was unsurprised by Pye’s claim of innocence.

“He’ll probably try and defend it because rule 101 is don’t smack your team-mate and he’s drilled him from quite a distance back,” he told Supercars.com.

“It wasn’t just a nudge, it was quite a distance back. I’m sure they’ve got internal things they need to address with each other and I’m just the aftermath of the crash.”

Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing co-principal Mathew Nilsson said the team will deal with the incident internally.

“For us, it's not a situation we want to be in, really. Contact between your cars is in our opinion avoidable,” he said.

“We've spoken already. We've started the process because you've got to address it as soon as you can.

“We've had discussions with both guys. It's positive discussions.”