De Pasquale eager to stay inside Finals bubble after Darwin podium

Anton De Pasquale returned to the top 10 in the Repco Supercars Championship standings after a breakthrough podium in Race 18 at the betr Darwin Triple Crown, and he is intent on staying there.

After a strong start to life at Team 18 saw him finish either seventh or eighth in the first six races of the season, the 29-year-old slipped to 12th in the standings as the team struggled at Taupō, Tasmania, and Perth.

However, Saturday in Darwin was a welcome return to form for both team and driver, with De Pasquale claiming his first front row start since Taupō, and converting it to Team 18's first podium of 2025 with second place.

More importantly, De Pasquale has risen back inside the top 10 in the standings and a potential Finals berth for the first time since Race 12 in Tasmania, however the Victorian insists the pressure hasn't eased.

"No pressure off because we're in 10th, but we've had sort of a mixed bag to this point, we probably should be a few more points up to where we are through various reasons," said De Pasquale in the post race press conference.

"We know that we can be in there, and we have a goal to be in The Finals, I think we will be very disappointed if we're not.

"We just need to keep executing, and I think we should progress in that way, but it is super tight from whatever position it is.

"There's a heap of cars with very similar speed fighting for the same position, so you have to execute, and you have a bad race in the enduros or something, you're going to pay a big price.

"No mistakes really from here on, but car speed always prevails."

De Pasquale is excited by the prospect of the points reset that will come with Finals, saying that it gives a much better chance of success to drivers like De Pasquale who are building into the season with new teams and engineering combinations.

For the #18 team, De Pasquale also has a new engineer in former Brad Jones Racing engineer Andrew Donnelly, who engineered his first podium today having been in Albury since 2019, and engineering Macauley Jones since 2023.

"It's exciting for anyone sort of out of that first few, and it's real exciting for everyone watching as well, the crews, because even if you finish 10th, and just make it through, and then you just have some good races, some luck, some really fast cars, you can take it all the way.

"That's something we haven't seen before, and that excitement and chance hasn't gone for a long time. Obviously, I'm sure if you're leading the championship I'm sure you don't feel the same, because going back, you would feel a lot more comfortable not having The Finals.

"But for us, that are just sort of new to teams and building and sort of learning a lot, it opens up a lot of opportunity for sure."

Sunday's action will commence with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 9:05am/9:35am AEST, followed by the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 11:35am/12:05pm AEST and Race 19 at 2:40pm local/3:10pm AEST.