Mostert, Waters lament qualifying struggles
Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters were among a number of high-profile victims to fall by the wayside in surprising ARMOR ALL Qualifying in Perth.
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Mostert and Tickford Racing’s Waters will start 15th and 19th in Saturday’s Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint opener.
It’s a hammer blow for Mostert, with series leader Brodie Kostecki set to launch from second for the 42-lap sprint.
The WAU star entered the weekend 32 points from the championship lead, and 54 points ahead of pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen.
Mostert was out-qualified by teammate Nick Percat for the first time this season, with WAU again finding the going tough in Perth.
The now Ford team was unable to crack the top 10 in either qualifying or race in 2022.
“We’re not fast enough — what that is, we need to work on pretty hard,” Mostert said.
“It’s a good opportunity to come to this race and get an understanding, but the qualifying car is not giving me a great feel on grip."
When asked if WAU is still proving a bogey track for WAU, Mostert replied: “It’s a little bit early in the weekend to say that.”
Waters, who led the points after Race 1, was adamant his #6 Monster Mustang is better than 19th.
"It’s been a bit of a battle this weekend,” the Tickford star said,
“We were making progress in quali then and got the car better.
“That last run, just locked up at [Turn] 1 and had to do it on lap one, the tyres were over-pressured and not real good lap two.
“We’re definitely quicker than 19th, the other team cars are going alright, so we’ve got some data to look at.
“We’ll throw some stuff at it in the race, elbows up and move forward.”
Earlier, Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner and Erebus’ Will Brown — who are fourth and fifth in the points — failed to progress to Q2.
Heimgartner and Brown will start from 21st and 22nd, a far cry from their solid practice pace from Friday.
“I don’t know, we did some changes and couldn’t get it together on properly that lap,” said Heimgartner, who was seventh on Friday..
“Very, very frustrating… but no doubt we’ll have some speed in the race.”
Brown added: “I’m not sure, I just didn't have the pace then to be honest.
“I was losing the rear a bit… I don’t think I pieced together a lap, the times are so close together.
“Good a good race run in, just struggling to maximise it now in quali."
Race 7 of the Repco Supercars Championship will commence at 3:45pm local time/5:45pm AEST.
Tickets for this weekend’s Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.
