Chaz Mostert’s clash with Brodie Kostecki in Christchurch has the potential to cause finals ramifications, after it saw Mostert fall below the ‘bubble’ for Supercars finals spots. Mostert was hit with a 30-second penalty and finished 17th after he shunted Kostecki off the track in Sunday’s final race of the weekend.
Kostecki finished 18th and lost his championship lead, but was thanking his lucky stars that no-one was injured. Kostecki was sent on a wild spin across the track and narrowly avoided colliding with Mostert and Will Brown after Mostert forced him wide.
Chaz Mostert copped a 30-second penalty for the incident with Brodie Kostecki. Image: Getty/Supercars
Mostert said he locked wheels with Kostecki, which shot him sideways into Kostecki. The Ford driver was trying to overtake Mostert to win the Jason Richards Trophy as best driver of the two rounds in New Zealand – Taupo and Christchurch – and Mostert defended a little too hard.
Many believe Mostert’s 30-second penalty is quite light, but there could be further ramifications in the form of the finals hunt. The penalty sent Mostert from seventh to 11th place in the championship and 23 points outside the top 10.
There’s still seven rounds until the finals spots are decided and plenty to play out, but Mostert will be kicking himself if he misses a top-10 berth. It would be a huge twist if the reigning champion fails to qualify for the finals.
The big winner from the Christchurch round was Kai Allen, who rocketed up six spots to fifth in the championship and 133 points clear of Mostert in 11th.
Chaz Mostert offers apology and explanation
“That wasn’t my intention for sure,” Mostert said on Sunday night about punting Kostecki off. “We made wheel-to-wheel contact, and it just spat me sideways, and then the last one whiplashed Brodie off, so not ideal.”
Mostert later apologised on social media, writing: “Difficult race today for us, going back and forth at the end and not the way we wanted the race to end, sorry to Brodie and his team.”
Chaz Mostert has fallen to 11th and out of the finals ‘bubble’.
(Getty Images)
Matt Payne, who won Sunday’s race, later said: “I’m glad Brodie didn’t end up on a slightly different trajectory, that’s when things could’ve really unfolded. Going onto the other side of the track, the dust and then not being able to see, it was a recipe for disaster.
“Not sure how nothing [worse] happened. Obviously some pretty interesting driving going on around there. Luckily I wasn’t part of it.”
Kostecki had a fairly diplomatic response, but his engineer George Commins described it as “unacceptably dangerous”.