Chaz Mostert downplays potential team order tensions
Mostert delivered animated response when asked to drop back
Ryan Wood eliminated from Finals contention after late stops
Chaz Mostert has downplayed any potential tensions at Walkinshaw TWG Racing following the use of team orders in the final laps of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 finale.
The reigning champion had already secured his passage to Sandown with a masterful victory on Saturday, and was mowing into the gap to Broc Feeney ad Brodie Kostecki in first and second when engineer Sam Scaffidi instructed him to drop back to teammate Ryan Wood in fourth.
Wood was in a fight for Finals survival, fending off advances from Jarrod Hughes and Andre Heimgartner, but needed a podium finish to stand any chance of qualifying for Sandown.
Mostert delivered an animated response to Scaffidi when told he'd have to drop back to the tune of 11 seconds, though he did just that with 11 laps remaining.
However, unscheduled late stops for Hughes and Cooper Murray, as well as Macauley Jones, promoted Anton De Pasquale into an insurmountable position, knocking Wood back out. Wood swapped back behind Mostert on the final lap.
Wood was quick to credit Mostert post-race, declaring the selflessness of the reigning champion "shows what type of human he is."
When Mostert was asked post-race about the scenario, the two-time Bathurst winner played down the notion of tension, instead claiming his frustrations stemmed from a mistake in the Top Ten Shootout that left him only eighth on the grid.
"My frustration, if there was any in the race, was still kicking myself over qualifying," Mostert told media on Sunday.
"When you've got the fastest car, you've got to execute, and especially in these Finals situations.
"That mistake in the Top Ten Shootout, Bruce [Stewart, CEO] can probably talk on it, but I was super frustrated before the start of the race, which sometimes works in my favour, or sometimes it doesn't.
"Generally it doesn't work, like on Saturday at Adelaide where you decide to drive through the tyre bundle, so I definitely did that today, but the Toyota Supra was nice and strong and copped it for me good enough.
"Yeah, just more frustrated with myself. This championship is so tough, the calibre of drivers, the teams, it's why I've wanted to stay here for so long.
"More just frustrated with myself today, because the car was fantastic, and just that mistake in Top Ten... Just frustrating that I didn't give myself enough.
"When you come from ninth or eighth on the grid, you give those guys in front a little bit of a headstart, so it would've been nice to put a bit of pressure on a bit earlier."
Mostert will enter November 6-8's Penrite Oil Sandown 500 as the fourth seed.
