Shell V-Power Racing have extended their lead at the top of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship with consecutive one-two finishes in the WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint.
Both Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard were in sensational form throughout the weekend, picking up top honours in every session bar practice one.
In the first race of the Game of Thrones inspired weekend, it was the reigning champion who replicated his form from last year’s corresponding round, putting in an incredible time to claim pole, before taking out the first race two seconds ahead of Coulthard.
Following his seventh victory of the season, McLaughlin was thrilled with both the team and Coulthard’s efforts.
“Unreal. It’s great for the team, one-two," McLaughlin said.
"We just sort of controlled the race from the start. It’s awesome to get a win here again, I love this place.
"[The start] was awesome, we were so equal… they were exactly the same.
"Into Turn 1 he didn’t want to back out and I didn’t want to back out either, but the aim of the game is not to make contact and we didn’t."
Rounding out the top-three was Andre Heimgartner in what was Nissan’s first time on podium since the Championship’s visit to The Bend Motorsport Park last year in August.
On the second day of action, McLaughlin again found himself at the front of the grid for his 11th pole of the season after qualifying ahead of Coulthard and Chaz Mostert.
However, Coutlhard jumped him through the pit stops and held onto top spot for the remainder to claim his first victory since May last year.
“We work so hard as a team, Scott has had a lot of wins this year, which is a credit to all those guys, they’ve done a fantastic job,” Coulthard explained.
“To finally get one is awesome, I can’t thank my crew enough.”
“I’m not sure what happened to Scott on one of his outlaps, because I was expecting a red car to go blowing past.
“But thankfully we had great pitstops, we had a fast car, it looked after its tyres, it ticked all the boxes.”
Like the first leg of the weekend, DJR Team Penske occupied the top two steps of the podium, while the final spot went to a new face in 2018 Peter Brock Medallist Anton de Pasquale who earned his first career podium.
The next round of the Championship isn’t until early next month with Barballago Raceway hosting the highly anticipated Pirtek Perth SuperNight race on 2-4 May.