The reigning Supercars champion scored his first podium since the Gold Coast last season in Darwin with third place in Sunday’s race behind Triple Eight pair Broc Feeney and Will Brown.

The result was a clear breakthrough off the back of what’s been a difficult start to Kostecki’s campaign both off and on the track.

As has been well-documented, Kostecki missed the first two rounds of the season due to complications with team management, before returning for the third round in New Zealand.

His outings in Perth and then initially in Darwin were then hampered by mechanical issues.

There was a DNF in the second of the Perth races due to an engine failure, before engine issues reared their head again on Friday and Saturday in Darwin.

Those were believed to be related to some concerns over the latest Chevrolet package, which are currently being investigated by supplier KRE.

After an overnight engine change in Darwin, Kostecki hit the ground running on the Sunday with a front-row start followed by the third place in the race.

Reflecting on result, Kostecki highlighted that momentum had been sorely missing from the Erebus camp – however said it was encouraging that he scored an “easy” third place despite not being entirely comfortable with his car.

“We’ve had a bit a rough start, but it’s really hard in this game; it’s very much based on momentum, and we haven’t had it too much lately,” he said.

“We sort of missed the first two to three days [in Darwin] with the engine issue we had, so to start on the front row [on Sunday] and to get a podium was quite cool.

“We’re just a couple of days behind the others, and to be honest the car didn’t feel that great in the race, balance wise, and we were still able to get an easy third.

“I’m excited going into Townsville and hopefully [KRE] get these engine problems sorted and we can have a good clean run there.

“There’s been a few dramas here and there, some are the team’s fault, some are not. This weekend was nothing to do with the team, it was quite unfortunate.

“The car felt quite good, considering the running that we had. We’ll put our heads down for Townsville.”