Anton De Pasquale has continued his wonderful form at Sydney Motorsport Park with another emphatic victory in Race 26 of the Supercars Championship.
 
It’s been a solid three weeks for De Pasquale, who crossed the line ahead of Shane van Gisbergen and Will Brown after what was a mostly comfortable opening outing of the BP Ultimate Sydney Supersprint.
 
The Dick Johnson Racing star started from pole position after an impressive qualifying session, setting a time three-tenths faster than the next best driver in Jamie Whincup.
 
With De Pasquale’s teammate Will Davison and Jamie Whincup’s Triple Eight teammate in Gisbergen qualifying on the second row – there was plenty on the line for both teams.
 
And fans had to wait very little for the first major talking point in the race, as Whincup went wide at lights outs and nearly collected Davison in the process, while James Courtney went inches from collecting the barrier.
 
Meanwhile, De Pasquale had a drama-free start and extended his lead to almost a second within the opening laps.
 
The Mustang driver didn’t have too much to worry about throughout the race despite losing the lead after compulsory pit stops, as he replaced all four tyres, while van Gisbergen went with the faster two-tyre pit stop one lap later.
 
It didn’t take long for De Pasqaule to regain the lead from van Gisbergen though, crossing the finish line almost two seconds ahead of his Kiwi rival.


"Definitely one of the better ones (races) I've done since being in Sydney. Pretty stoked to get the win we've had a good day so we'll try and do something similar tomorrow," De Pasquale said.

"The guys at Shell V-Power Racing they took two tyres so I knew I was gonna have grip out of that corner on them and just sort of did it on Jamie and then Shane the next lap.

"They were both pretty nice to me but I think the speed difference is so much with the two tyres, so lucky to get it done with the safety car and all of that stuff."
 
While there wasn’t too much drama at the front of the field, the battle for the podium spot went right down to the wire as Brown overcame Whincup with just three laps to go.

Brown's pass came as a result of some brilliant teamwork from his Erebus Motorsport teammate Brodie Kostecki, who had also attempted to replace Whincup for third place earlier, as the latter gave up his spot to give Brown a crack at the seven-time champion.
 
As Brown passed Whincup, Kostecki wasn’t able to replicate his teammate’s good work though and settled for a deserving fifth place behind Whincup.
 
Click here to view full results from Race 26. 
 
There was plenty of drama to occur throughout the 32-lap affair, despite Bryce Fullwood being the only non-finisher after his car stopped.
 
Other unlucky drivers to have major issues during the race included Nick Percat who had mechanical gremlins, while both Cameron Waters and Jack Smith were victims of contact with other drivers - all three still managed to finish the race.

The BP Ultimate Sydney Supersprint resumes tomorrow with two races awaiting crews – the first to take place at 1:50pm and the second at 4:45pm AEDT.
 
Click here to view the Stewards Summaries across the weekend.