CHAZ Mostert has apologised to Matt Payne for the Albert Park clash that robbed Ford of another potential Supercars victory.
Less than 18 hours on from Payne and Cam Waters smashing into one another while squabbling for the lead on Saturday, it was Payne and Mostert making contact at the front on Sunday – with Nick Percat the beneficiary this time.
MORE: Why Waters/Payne tangle went unpunished
Mostert was pinged with a five-second penalty accordingly, dropping him from fourth to fifth in the end, while Payne came home 14th after later getting turned around by Bryce Fullwood.
“Huge apologies to Matty Payne and his whole team there at Groves and all their fans,” Mostert said on the broadcast.
“We’re racing for sheep stations down there and I was chasing him into (Turn) 9, and just with the little bit of the aero behind there, or a bit of the cold tyre as well, I just pinched a front.
“And as we’ve seen over many years around here, if you do that at 9 you’re generally going for an excursion.
“I tried my best to find that gap slightly in the fence to miss him, but unfortunately I tagged him and put us back from there.
“I don’t know what else happened to him after that, but huge apologies. It’s one of my mistakes.”
It capped an incident-stricken weekend for Mostert, who was bumped off in Race 1 by Nick Percat and gave Todd Hazelwood a visit after a Friday fracas.
Mostert’s WAU teammate Ryan Wood was also penalised in the Sunday race, to the tune of 30 seconds for a last-lap incident that rendered Cameron Hill a non-finisher.
