Brown wins shortened Albert Park Race 2

WILL Brown turned the tables on teammate Broc Feeney to win a shortened second Supercars race at Albert Park and retake the championship lead.

Delays in the preceding Formula 3 practice session left the Supercars race to start later than scheduled, resulting in its time certain cut-off coming after 17 of 19 laps.

Brown continued Triple Eight’s unbeaten run in 2024, but it was sweet and sour for the team after Feeney dropped from second to fourth with a mistake on the penultimate lap.

That elevated Mark Winterbottom to second and Matt Payne to third, the latter scoring his second podium in succession despite copping wheel damage in an opening lap skirmish. 

For the second day in a row, it was the second-placed starter who won the jump – this time Brown beating pole-sitter Cam Waters to Turn 1.

Feeney and Winterbottom followed, while side-to-side contact between Payne and Anton De Pasquale as they battled for fifth at Turn 4 left the latter out of the race with broken steering.

The top four remained unchanged until lap seven when Feeney made a bold dive on Waters for second at Turn 11.

Waters attempted to repay the favour at the following corner only to slide wide and make light contact with the Camaro, allowing Winterbottom to pounce on both.

Feeney waited just five more corners to retake second from the Team 18 driver and had lost little ground to teammate Brown, who was managing his tyres out front.

Waters meanwhile dropped to sixth behind the chasing Davison and Payne, before losing a further place to Percat and then applying a hip-and-shoulder to prevent Le Brocq doing likewise.

Brown controlled the pace at the front in order not to take the best from his tyres, just as teammate Feeney had done in Thursday’s race.

“It was really cool,” said Brown post-race. “I had a super-fast car but I was just able to manage it and save the tyres.”

Triple Eight appeared set for another one-two until Feeney ran wide at Turn 13 on what turned out to be the penultimate lap.

Will Davison enjoyed a strong run in his 550^th career race to turn eighth on the grid into fifth at the flag ahead of Percat, Waters, Le Brocq, Todd Hazelwood and Tim Slade.

Percat did the bulk of his work on the first lap, where he gained seven places from his 14^th-place qualifying effort.

David Reynolds also vaulted seven places on the opening tour but was shuffled back out of the top 10 and finished 11^th.

Rookie Ryan Wood was next having survived an early clash with Thomas Randle, who finished last after a later incident with Cam Hill earned the Tickford driver a penalty.

Chaz Mostert turned ninth on the grid to a dismal 17^th, struggling with a suspected blistered tyre.

The 17-lap sprint was Supercars’ only track action of the day, with the teams now preparing for two qualifying sessions and the third race of the weekend on Saturday.

RESULTS: Race 2, 2024 MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint