Kostecki on TTSO mishap: “The race hasn’t started yet”

Brodie Kostecki is resolute despite handing Supercars title rival Shane van Gisbergen a free kick with his Top 10 Shootout mishap at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

The championship leader looked like usurping van Gisbergen in the one-lap dash when he set the fastest first sector of the session, with just Matt Payne and Cam Waters to come.

However, he grabbed too much kerb through the Beach Chicane at Turn 8 and was pinged for a breach of track limits.

With no time to his name, Kostecki is set to start 10th this afternoon on the narrow, concrete-lined Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, while van Gisbergen will line up on Row 2.

The #99 Erebus Motorsport pilot, though, is not too concerned.

“We’ll just see how the race goes,” said Kostecki.

“The race hasn’t started yet, so we’ll get through the first few corners and see how we stack up.

“I know the car’s definitely had plenty of pace all year, so we’ll just see how we go and hopefully pick a few off and close the gap down a little bit and see how close we can get to the front.”

If van Gisbergen and Kostecki were to finish where they start today, then the gap at the top of the points table would come down from 131 points to 80.

Explaining the moment at the Beach Chicane, the championship leader admitted, “I just made a small, little error going over the first right-hand kerb and just bounced a little bit too wide and then just got a kerb hop there.

“So, my mistake, but the car’s pretty fast and the track was getting faster and faster through the shootout.

“So, Cam [Waters, pole-sitter] did a fantastic job, so congratulations to all of them for getting pole, but we’ll fight back from 10th and see where we end up.”

Race 25 is officially scheduled to start at 15:45 local time/16:45 AEDT.