Race leader runs out of fuel on the last lap in 'crazy' finish to Bathurst 1000

Who to choose for our Drive of the Month after the pure theatre and sensational finish of the Bathurst 1000 at the Mount Panorama Circuit?

How about Zach Bates and Aaron Seton? The 22-year-old Bates, in his first full season as a top-liner in Australia’s Supercars series, sensationally put the Chevrolet of unfancied minnow team Matt Stone Racing on pole. Co-driver Seton then followed in the footsteps of dad Glenn and grandad Bo by leading ‘The Great Race’. And Bates was four laps from victory, with 9sec in hand over the battling pair behind, when the first and only safety car – after over five and a half hours of racing – ruined his chances.

Or Anton de Pasquale? It was his Team 18 Chevy in the lead when that safety car was called, but the squad had gone too far with short-fuelling at its final pitstop. That leapfrogged the Victorian to the front, but he was doomed. What the team explained as an error in its fuel strategy software meant de Pasquale’s Chevy coughed its last as he headed up Mountain Straight on the 161st and last lap of the race.

We have to give it to Brodie Kostecki. The 2023 Supercars champion and ’24 Bathurst victor had been up against it. A change of brakes did not go smoothly and, before that final stint, his Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang S650, ably co-driven by Todd Hazelwood, had been 25sec behind Bates. But Kostecki’s very late final pitstop meant he was on tyres half a stint younger than those of Bates. He battled past Will Brown’s Triple Eight Ford Mustang in a doorbanging battle for third, then both of them jumped Bates – his tyres wilting – after that final restart. Then he flashed past de Pasquale.

As he did so, Kostecki welled up… and nearly crashed, dazzled by the setting sun. “It was just a crazy, crazy finish,” he choked. “You couldn’t have scripted that.” Tears flowed too from 81-year-old team patriarch, three-time Bathurst winner and Ford folk hero Dick Johnson: “You know what? I want a couple more before I fall off the perch.”

Driver briefing notes

Toyota takes WEC title and Max is moonlighting again

● A 1-2 for Toyota in the Barcelona 6 Hours wrapped up the World Endurance Championship manufacturers’ crown. Brendon Hartley, Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa beat Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries to stretch their margin in the drivers’ table heading into the Monza finale.

● Max Verstappen can add ‘GT World Challenge Europe supersub’ to his CV. With Verstappen Racing’s drivers ‘cup-tied’ on WEC duty, Max stormed his Mercedes up the field to ninth at Portimão after an early penalty. Merc trio Maxi Götz, Fabian Schiller and Ralf Arón won the race.

● With a round to spare, Ash Sutton, above, clinched a record-breaking fifth British Touring Car Championship title at Silverstone with the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium team. A pair of wins at the Brands Hatch finale cemented the runner-up spot for Excelr8’s Tom Ingram.