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Richie Stanaway has revealed the cause of the failure which cost him a finish on the final lap of Race 1 at Adelaide.
The rookie sat 18th after 77 laps having survived two crashes in less than half a lap when the race interrupted as it moved into its final third.
With the field compressed after a Safety Car restart on Lap 55, Fabian Coulthard dived at the #56 Tickford Racing Falcon at Turn 14, riding up over Stanaway’s right-rear wheel.
On the next lap, James Golding got inside of the FGX at Turn 5, with Stanaway turning Todd Hazelwood into the path of the Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore in the squeeze.
Having managed to drive himself out of the tyre belt which he had come to rest in, the New Zealander was still on to finish as top rookie until an unrelated mechanical failure.
“I was out on the racing line and I braked late into the last corner,” he recounted to Speedcafe.com regarding the first incident.
“I don’t know why Fabian (Coulthard) tried to pass me because I braked deep to protect the inside.
“I think Golding was just being too aggressive at Turn 5 and then I got taken out there as well.
“At the end of the day, we had a drivetrain failure, which wasn’t to do with any of the incidents, so we wouldn’t have made it to the end anyway.”
The GP2 race winner, who lit up Supercars on debut in the rain at Sandown in 2016 and backed up with a 500 win last year, admitted to being disappointed with his first solo race.
He had qualified 16th and shook out 18th after the first round of pit stops, remaining at the back end of the top 20 until Car #56 failed to proceed.
“I was finding it pretty tough,” Stanaway admitted.
“I didn’t feel as confident and as fast as I wanted to be, so I felt like I struggled but obviously it’s tough for everyone.
“It was my first race, I didn’t want to make a mistake, so I was probably being a bit conservative.
“It’s just a shame to get hit in the door a couple of times and then to have a mechanical failure; it was nothing that was in my control.”
