Love swerved into the path of Courtney just moments after the session began when they exited the pit lane.
Lovei was on the far right of the asphalt when he veered the #3 CoolDrive Racing Ford Mustang to the left to scrub his tyres and drove into the path of the #7 Snowy River Racing car.
Courtney suffered damage to the right rear wheel and did not continue in qualifying. Love, meanwhile, qualified second-to-last.
For the incident, Love was fined $2000, of which $1000 was suspended until December 21 on the condition that he did not commit a similar infringement before the end of the year.
Love was also given a four-place grid penalty. However, having qualified 24th, that only dropped him to 25th behind his teammate.
“The Driver of Car 3 said that he did not know that Car 7 had moved up alongside,” Motorsport Australia’s stewards’ report read in-part.
“He said that in a previous Session he had exited the Pit Lane and had wanted to move up but had been baulked by another Car weaving across the circuit. He therefore thought he could do the same.”
As Courtney noted immediately after the incident in a Fox Sports interview, the 2010 Supercars champion said the team had discussed the move.
Love, in his television interview, said there had been a discussion but not specifically about passing Courtney on the out-lap.
“The Driver of Car 7 said that prior to the start of the Session there had been a discussion within the Team and it had been agreed that both Cars would push from the start of the Session and, by activating his lights and moving forward to pass Car 3, he was merely following that strategy,” the report continued.
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“The Driver of Car 3 acknowledged there had been such a discussion but said that there had been no mention of Car 7 overtaking Car 3. The Driver of Car 3 acknowledged that simply because he had exited the Pit Lane first did not mean he had exclusive right to use the entire width of the circuit and he agreed that even if Car 7 had not moved into that space, there was always the potential for another Car further back in the queue to do so.
“Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards are satisfied that the Driver of Car 3’s weaving movement to the left was careless and at the high end of such an infringement.
“The Stewards acknowledge that at the point in time when Car 7 activated its headlights it would not have been seen in Car 3’s mirrors and accept that the Driver of Car 3 may not have anticipated that Car 7 would move to overtake him when there had been no prior discussion of that occurring.
“However, the Driver of Car 3 ought not to have considered that he could use the entire width of the circuit with indifference to the potential that another Car might pass, whether that was his teammate or another Car.
“For these reasons, the Stewards are satisfied that the Driver of Car 3 was predominantly to blame for the Incident and impose the standard 4 Grid position Penalty and additionally, having regard to the severity of the infringement, a Fine of which a portion is suspended.”
Race 2 of the Repco Supercars Championship is scheduled for 7:30pm AEDT.
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