De Pasquale disqualified from second Sydney race
Anton De Pasquale has been stripped of his fifth place finish in the second Sydney Motorsport Park race due to a tyre mix-up.
According to a post-race stewards report the Dick Johnson Racing crew mistakenly fitted a control Dunlop allocated to Will Davison's car onto De Pasquale's car during the mandatory stop.
The team flagged the breach with Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess, but was still hit with a $20,000 fine (half of which is suspended until the end of the year) and De Pasquale was scrubbed from the race.
"Following the race, the [deputy race director] received a report from Supercars Technical that during Race 21 the authorised representative of Racing Team (Aust) Pty Ltd had reported to the HoM that during Race 21 the ream had fitted a control tyre allocated to car #17, Will Davison, on Car #11 in breach of Rule D17.1.6 which prohibits the transfer of a Control Tyre between cars except as permitted by the rules,' read the stewards report.
"The control tyre transfer between car #17 and car #11 was not permitted.
"The team having admitted to the breach, the stewards imposed a penalty of disqualification of car #11 from Race 21 and a fine on Racing Team (Aust) Pty Ltd in the sum of $20,000 of which $10,000 is suspended until 31 December 2021 subject to the team not committing any further breach of Rule D17 before that date."
DJR team principal Ben Croke explained that the mix-up was an honest mistake.
"The wrong tyre was fitted to Anton’s car. It’s a mistake that we made, we’ve put our hand up, we accept the consequences," he told the broadcast.
"It’s been a really positive return to racing for us, we have had really good cars here this weekend.
"So for us now, the focus is just to go out in this next one and do the best job we can.
"Anton is on pole, so we will move on and keep pressing on."
The Race 1 winner endured a difficult second heat, a poor start from pole dropping him back to seventh on the opening lap.
He then took his mandatory service on Lap 8, the undercut giving him the lead after the stops shook out, but the poorest tyre condition of the lead group.
He dropped back to fifth on the road, that position now going to Tim Slade in the final results thanks to De Pasquale's exclusion.
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