Nissan Motorsport has claimed a Top 10 result in Race 19 of the 2018 Supercars Championship at Queensland Raceway this afternoon.
Michael Caruso was the leading Nissan after 120km of racing. The #23 Drive Racing entry lined up 7th on the grid after a frenetic 15-minute qualifying session. Caruso managed his tyre life well to finish in 9th place.
Rick Kelly qualified an impressive 4th for this afternoon’s race – following a penalty applied to Chaz Mostert. A strong start saw the #15 Castrol Racing driver rocket up to 3rd into the first corner. Tyre life challenges and an issues in Kelly’s pit stop resulted in a 13th placed finish
Andre Heimgartner made up a few positions across this afternoon’s event to greet the chequered flag in 15th place. The #7 Plus Fitness Racing driver started the 39 lap event from 17th on the grid, following a challenging qualifying session. The team will make some changes overnight ahead of tomorrow’s Race 20 qualifying.
Simona De Silvestro has finished in 19th place after a tricky afternoon of racing. The #78 Team Harvey Norman driver suffered from understeer, but her impressive tyre life will likely pay dividends in tomorrow’s 65 lap event-finale.
The Ipswich SuperSprint concludes tomorrow with a 200km race around the 3.12km Queensland Raceway circuit.
MICHAEL CARUSO #23 DRIVE RACING « It’s good to be back racing near the front. It’s a nice reward for the guys that have been working long hours to get us on the track. Judging from the pace we had towards the end of the race, we should have a pretty strong race car for tomorrow. It’s going to be an interesting race, as strategy will play more of an influence than anything the driver can do. But I am looking forward to the challenge. »
RICK KELLY #15 CASTROL RACING « We were having a great day up until about lap 10 of the race. We had good pace and lined up in what would be 4th on the grid. We started using the tyre a little bit too much and we had a queue behind us even before the first round of stops. We went a little longer than what was optimal for the car we had. We just didn’t have the pace to drive back through. We also had some issues in our pitstop. Those issues saw us drop to 13th. It could have been better than that, but it also could have been a lot worse. »
ANDRE HEIMGARTNER #7 PLUS FITNESS RACING « We stayed out of trouble and made up a few spots across the race. It’s good to have finished with a straight car. We’ve got a few things to try overnight and we’ll work on the car a bit more before qualifying. Tyre life wasn’t too bad when compared to those around. So we’ll see what we can produce over 200km tomorrow. »
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO #78 TEAM HARVEY NORMAN « We qualified quite well today and made gains across the morning. The car felt pretty good for the start of the race. We suffered from understeer and it was a tricky afternoon for us. We learned a lot and we’ll be able to refine the car overnight. I don’t think tyre life will be an issue tomorrow, so we’ll just need to work on the balance. But we should have a good race car for tomorrow. »
Press release Nissan Motorsport
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