"I knew we were cooked," says Anton De Pasquale of fuel drama
De Pasquale runs out of fuel on last lap, fails to finish Bathurst 1000
Brodie Kostecki sails through to claim victory for Ford, DJR
Anton De Pasquale admits he "knew we were cooked" in the run home, as Bathurst victory slipped away from Team 18 and Chevrolet in shocking scenes.
De Pasquale was in the box seat to win the Repco Bathurst 1000, but was in clear fuel trouble in the final stint.
Engineer Andrew Donnelly implored his driver to "maximum" fuel save, and the Mountain was left in bewilderment as the #18 DEWALT Camaro slowed on the last lap.
As the field crested Mountain Straight, De Pasquale slowed. Brodie Kostecki sailed past, and won the race in one of the greatest endings in Great Race history.
De Pasquale didn't finish the race, his car coming to a stop at The Chase.
A clearly dejected De Pasquale fronted up on the broadcast post-race, saying: “I don't know how to put it in words, but obviously, very disappointed.
“We had a really good day, so… and yeah, the checkered flag was, you know, six k's away, so really disappointing.
“Our car was amazing at the back end of the race where we wanted it. Everything went our way until it didn’t.”
When asked when he knew he was in fuel trouble, De Pasquale replied: “Too late.
“By the time we obviously it got worked out, we were done.”A late Safety Car for the crashed Chaz Mostert seemed to have done the job, but it wasn’t enough.
"Obviously, if that Safety Car went for another couple of laps, we would've been fine, but once I knew how much fuel short we were, I knew we were cooked,” De Pasquale continued.
“We'll try again. Hopefully our car's as good as that and we can have another go."
