Supercars Melbourne: Mostert wins wild opening race

The field was almost perfectly split in terms of tyre strategy for the opening 20-lap race, with 13 cars starting on the soft tyre and 12 on the hard.

There was perfectly represented at the front of the field, where the likes of David Reynolds and Mostert started on the soft and Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison started on the hard.

That made life easy on polesitter Reynolds at the start, although Mostert was able to clear the DJR cars at the first corner to make sure he stayed on Reynolds' bumper.

It quickly became evident that the WAU car was quicker than the Grove Mustang, Mostert passing Reynolds to grab the lead at the last corner on lap three. From there Mostert comfortably led the first stint until pitting to switch to hard compound tyres on lap seven.

By that point both DJR cars had already pitted for softs, which gave them the undercut needed to jump Mostert, with De Pasquale (in on lap four) leading Davison (a pit caller on lap three).

But the early stops made it difficult for the DJR drivers to keep their softs alive and Mostert duly caught them with nine laps to go, first passing Davison for second before taking the lead from De Pasquale at Turn 11 two laps later. From there, Mostert was free to cruise to a 7.6s win.

"I don't think many people expected the race to be what it was," said Mostert.

"Strategy helped our race. We went aggressive and it ended up being the safer option.

Start of Race 1

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Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

"I'm just happy, any time you win in this category it's amazing. We weren't that strong through practice and qualifying but the car is getting faster and faster."

Things only got worse for the DJR cars in the closing