Mostert apologises to Payne after costly clash

Chaz Mostert has apologised to Matt Payne and Penrite Racing after their early-race contact in the Albert Park finale.

A Mostert lock-up into Turn 9 led to contact, with the two Mustangs surfing through the grass, handing the lead to Nick Percat.

While Percat went on to win the race, Mostert crossed the line fourth, but was reclassified fifth after being hit with a five-second penalty.

Payne, meanwhile, was later sent into a spin by Bryce Fullwood, and recovered to 14th.

Mostert quickly went down to Payne and Penrite Racing crew members after the race, and in a TV interview, took full responsibility for the incident.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver explained that he lost confidence after a slow start to Saturday’s race, with Payne getting by pole-sitter Mostert off the line on Sunday.

"I lost a lot of confidence with yesterday’s start, and we made some changes to the car to try and make it better today," Mostert told the broadcast.

"But, for the process of warming the car up, I was just out of my window. I didn’t quite get away as well.

On the lock-up, Mostert explained: "We’re racing for sheep stations down there and I was chasing him into [Turn] 9, and just with the little of the aero behind there, or a bit of the cold tyre as well, I just pinched a front.

"And as we’ve seen over many years around here, if you do that at [Turn] 9 you’re generally going for an excursion.

"I don’t know what else happened to him after that, but huge apologies. It’s one of my mistakes."

Mostert finished fourth overall for the weekend, and is now 102 points behind championship leader Will Brown.