Early championship blow for Erebus drivers on 'weekend to forget'

Erebus Motorsport is looking to its home round in Melbourne to bounce back after a “weekend to forget” in Sydney.

Cooper Murray and rookie Jobe Stewart left the DUNLOP Sydney 500 in 23rd and 24th in points after a tough outing in Western Sydney.

Neither driver qualified better than 15th across the three races, while Murray was ruled out of Race 1 with steering issues, before a starter motor problem left him stranded on the grid at the practice start on Sunday.

Stewart, meanwhile, was undone by a wheel gun issue on Sunday, forcing him back into pit lane.

“Definitely a weekend to forget. We struggled pretty much from Friday morning and never really got it right,” Murray said on social media.

“Race pace was good in our last race, probably the best it's been all weekend and one of the fastest times of the race as well.

“It was just unfortunate that the car didn’t start on the grid, so that put us on the back foot from the start of the race.

"But all in all, onto bigger and better things at the Grand Prix. Had really good speed there last year, so looking forward to going back there.”

Stewart added: “A tough pill to swallow for that one.

"We had a pretty big swing at set up and it. Actually paid off there, moved up a few spots at the start, and then there was a bit of chaos with safety cars and rain and whatnot.

"But unfortunately we had an error with the wheel gun, which didn't do up the wheel all the way, so we had to come in for another stop and went a lap down.

"So it was just a bit of data gathering for me in that one and finished at the back. But, we definitely made a step forward in that one. So there's still positives to take out at the next round.”

Track action at the Grand Prix commences on Thursday March 5.