'Everything went wrong': Brown recounts ordeal, apologises to De Pasquale
Will Brown recounts Sydney ordeal, apologises to Anton De Pasquale
Brown penalised for De Pasquale collision in Sydney finale, finished 18th
Triple Eight star treated after hot and humid Sydney race
Ending Round 1 sitting 15th in points certainly wasn’t the plan for Will Brown, who encountered a bruising weekend in Sydney.
Finishes of seventh, 15th and 18th have Brown already 106 points behind teammate Broc Feeney heading to Melbourne.
The 2024 Supercars champion was on for a strong finish on Sunday, but on the Safety Car restart, collided with erstwhile points leader Anton De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki through Turn 4.
Brown was penalised over the clash, but the pain didn’t end at the chequered flag. The Queenslander was helped from his car to the in-field medical centre for precautionary checks, as was Team 18’s David Reynolds.
After being discharged, Brown shared some images on social media of the aftermath, writing: "Tough old race. Cool suit failure from the start cooked me! Thanks to my team and the medical crew for looking after us.”
Amid Sydney heat and humidity, cool suit issues plagued both Triple Eight drivers, with Race 3 winner Feeney also being attended to in PIRTEK Victory Lane.
In a team release, Brown said it was the "worst I've ever felt” after a race.
"Today just everything went wrong. The cool suit failed. Thought I was going to die in the car, can't explain the heat and how hard it made that race,” Brown said.
"Finished the race but that's the worst I've ever felt after a drive. Obviously, went for a hole that probably I shouldn't have at the start there.
"Apologies to Anton and his team, I was going for a hole that I shouldn't have gone for looking back at it but at the same time you need to make those moves when they are on.
"It's just been a tough day, tough weekend, really not the way we want to start the year but we know we've got a fast car so we'll push on and have a crack. It's early and there are good signs.”
Brown was penalised on Saturday night for spinning the wheels in his stop. On Friday night, he clashed with Matt Payne and came home seventh, avoiding race-ending damage along the way.
He now heads to Melbourne, where he is the two-time defending Larry Perkins Trophy winner.
"Yeah, for us it was just a weekend of what could have been,” Brown said.
"I felt like the first day we really could have gotten a good result. Unfortunately, we just had a bit of a long pit stop and that ended up meaning that we came out behind Cam and ended up finishing in seventh.
"But felt like that should have been a fourth place or something like that with the car we had and the way we were going.
"Saturday was just a tough one. We were saving tyres, really looking good. Safety Car came at the wrong point for us which meant we had to double stack.
"We went back to 17th from that, came back to 10th then got a penalty for spinning the wheels in the pits. All the way back to 22nd and then fought back to about 15th. So, tough day yesterday.”
