Anton De Pasquale has hailed the Shell V-Power Racing Team’s tenacity after a return to form at Albert Park’s opening Supercars race.
The #11 Mustang driver started today’s Race 3 of the championship from pole position, a marked difference from the Newcastle round where neither of cars made the top 10 for either race.
“We got lapped in Newcastle, so we were in a very different league to where we were last time we drove these cars,” De Pasquale said.
“We’re obviously way better than where we were a few weeks ago, so it’s a big credit to the whole team turning that round, because we went from a fair bit of struggle street to one of the quicker cars today.”
“It’s a big turnaround and obviously with those guys who were at the front, all the guys we were racing at Newcastle as well, we’ve caught up to that group, which is good, but obviously [Albert Park is] a very different track as well. That will linger in our minds when we go back to that style of track.”
De Pasquale’s pole position was a relief for the team, and despite being passed by Shane van Gisbergen, who won the 19-lap affair, the pace of the #11 DJR Mustang was genuinely front-running.
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It was in the pits that the most time was lost, with many teams exploiting a loophole which enabled them to change only two tyres as the race had been declared wet before the start, which still saw De Pasquale finish a credible sixth despite changing all four.
“We obviously misread that [changing four tyres where others only changed two], and then got jumped by a lot of the people that did two tyres, which took us off the podium, and on top of that didn’t have the best stop,” De Pasquale said. “But, our race car’s a lot better; we were dropping back a little bit but we were half hanging on. So that’s a good sign.”
However, he was coy about what effect a post-Newcastle rule change which allows teams to insert a suspension spacer and thus increase rear ride height had.
“That’s a question to ask Ludo,” De Pasquale remarked, in reference to his race engineer Ludo Lacroix.
De Pasquale lines up in 11th while team-mate Will Davison will start eighth for tomorrow’s Race 4, which starts at 14:50 AEDT.
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