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Cameron Waters made a statement with a pole-to-flag Saturday win on the streets of the Gold Coast for the second year in succession in Supercars.

After taking a season-high sixth pole position, Waters won the start in his Tickford Racing Ford Mustang and built a lead of over five seconds before his first pitstop. For much of the middle stint he had team-mate Thomas Randle close behind, before he pulled away and went on to win by a convincing 9.41s.

“What a day, what a weekend so far. This thing has been an absolute rocketship all weekend,” he grinned after his fourth race win of the season.

“I got a really good start, I had a pretty cool race car and I just had to make the most of it. The car was bloody good and I don’t think we’ll be doing much to it [overnight].”

Randle drove strongly to make it a Tickford 1-2, and at one stage was right under Waters’s wing, before settling back to ensure his second podium finish of the season.

“What a race! It was pretty crazy down at Turn 1 but I made it through,” said Randle after his team’s first 1-2 result since 2017.

“I was trying not to look in the mirrors, it [the gap to Broc Feeney] was flickering and then going back up. The pitstops were amazing.”

Triple Eight’s Feeney, who started fourth, was aided by a very short first pitstop and who, inevitably, dropped back to eighth after a necessarily longer second stop, but still emerged as the best of the Chevrolet Camaros. He snatched third place off Matt Payne with 10 laps remaining, and then chased Randle before settling for third.

In Fourth place came Matt Payne, who started from the fifth row after he overshot a corner during his shootout lap. The Grove Racing Ford driver consolidated early and once he got into clean air, he was able to set rapid lap times.

Fresh from his Bathurst win, Brodie Kostecki gave Erebus Motorsport fifth place after starting from 10th on the grid after triggering a kerb sensor on his top 10 shootout lap. Sixth was David Reynolds, a deserved reward for the Team18 squad which essentially built a new Chevrolet after Reynolds’s significant Bathurst qualifying crash.

Behind Reynolds in seventh was Triple Eight’s Will Brown. The championship leader started from 11th on the grid after crashing out of the provisional qualifying session and, after swift repairs, understandably drove a circumspect race to take seventh.

Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet) was eighth ahead of Richie Stanaway, who started from the front row in the Grove Racing Ford and ran in second place in the early laps, before dropping back.

The one driver who may have challenged Waters for the win was Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert, who battled with a gearshift sensor problem which negated his flat-shift feature. During both his fuel stops it also slowed his Ford nearly to walking pace in the pitlane, costing him around five seconds in his first stop and 20 in his second. His consolation prize was 10th place.

One of the fastest of the Chevrolets and one who might have challenged for a podium was PremiAir Racing Camaro driver James Golding, who snatched third place from Stanaway on lap 11 and chased after the Fords. But a left-rear wheel nut got stuck at his first pitstop, dropping him out of the top 20. By the end of the race he recovered slightly but only to 16th place.

The results mean that Brown, who carried a 204 championship point lead over Feeney into the race, saw his advantage reduced to 171 points, 2634 to 2463. Mostert remains third on 2391 ahead of Waters (2224), Mayne (1779) and Golding (1775).

Sunday’s schedule will see the Supercars back on the 3km street circuit at 10:10am local time for qualifying, for the top 10 shootout at 12:35pm and on the grid for the 22nd race of the season over 85 laps at 3:15pm.

McLaren has had its request for a Right of Review into Lando Norris’ Austin penalty rejected by the FIA stewards for last weekend’s Formula 1 race in Austin.

McLaren had argued that the stewards made an incorrect statement – and overall call – in handing Norris a penalty in Document 69 (from the FIA timing system) of the Austin weekend.

It was this that the orange team submitted as a “significant and relevant new element that was unavailable to McLaren at the time the stewards took their decision” to penalise Norris.

McLaren tried to argue that Norris had successfully got ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the scrap at Turn 12 late in the United States Grand Prix and so became a defending car and not an attacker when Verstappen shot back to reach the apex of the corner ahead before they both ran wide and Norris overtook in the wide run-off area.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

In order for the Right of Review procedure to get to its second stage, which here would have been a new case assessing if Norris’s penalty would be rescinded, all teams initiating this process must prove to the stewards what they are arguing as new evidence is ‘significant’, ‘relevant’, ‘new’ and ‘unavailable at the time of the decision’.

The hearing in the Mexican GP paddock – with the Austin stewards joining via video – lasted just 25 minutes, as McLaren team boss Andrea Stella and team manager CHECK Randeep Singh made their case.
Red Bull representatives, which included sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, FIA officials including head of single seater matters Nikolas Tombazis were also present – with Wheatley outlining Red Bull’s arguments in the case.

Singh argued that McLaren believed ‘Document 69’ was a significant and relevant new element because “The document for the decision contained a statement that was incorrect and that [therefore] evidenced an objective, measurable and provable error had been made by the stewards” – per the FIA document announcing the Right of Review had been rejected.

McLaren said “that the statement [in ‘Document 69’] was that “Car 4 was overtaking Car 1 on the outside but was not level with Car 1 at the apex” and that “the above statement was in error because McLaren had evidence that Car 4 had already overtaken and was ahead of Car 1 “at the braking zone”.

Stella argued that “the case for McLaren was a ‘legally sophisticated explanation’ and urged the stewards to recognize that this was a substantive case especially compared to previous Right of Review cases”.

Wheatley said Red Bull felt none of the four Right of Review criteria had been met in this case and said, also per the relevant FIA document, that “in view of the “very high bar” that is set (in Article 14 of the FIA International Sporting Code) for a successful petitioning of a Right of Review, it is “extremely onerous” to establish the existence of the new element”.

McLaren, however, believed its evidence presented met the high bar required and also “stated that he felt there needed to be another way to correct decisions taken in a race”.

Having adjourned the hearing, the Austin stewards decided to only focus on one of the Right of Review elements – relevance – and declared that “the concept that the written Decision (Document 69) was the significant and relevant new element, or that an error in the decision was a new element, is not sustainable and is therefore rejected”.

The Austin stewards also explained that “McLaren appears to submit that the Stewards finding that “Car 4 was not level with Car 1 at the apex” was an error and that Car 4 had overtaken Car 1 before the apex (and therefore that Car 1 was the overtaking car) and that this asserted error is itself, a new element.

The statement continued: “This is unsustainable. A petition for review is made in order to correct an error (of fact or law) in a decision. Any new element must demonstrate that error.

“The error that must be shown to exist, cannot itself be the element referred to in Article 14 (of the ISC).”
At the end of their petition rejection document, the Austin stewards also commented on the “high bar” element of the Right of Review rule in the ISC.

They determined to draw the FIA’s attention to how “The current ‘high bar’ that exists in Article 14 and the fact that it appears to have been designed more for decisions that are taken as a result of a hearing where all parties are present, rather than in the pressurised environment of a race session, when decisions are taken, (as is allowed under the International Sporting Code), without all parties being present.”

This is an element of how Norris’s penalty was applied in Austin – without hearing his or Verstappen’s point of view – that had frustrated McLaren last weekend.

The hearing in the Mexican GP paddock – with the Austin stewards joining via video – lasted just 25 minutes, as McLaren team boss Andrea Stella and racing director Randeep Singh made their case.

Max Verstappen rued “useless” Friday practice at Formula 1’s Mexico Grand Prix, following a series of power unit issues that hampered his running throughout the day.

Verstappen reported there was “something wrong” with his engine at the end of FP1, which caused him to miss the final five minutes of running in the opening hour-long session.

This persisted throughout FP2, which was dedicated to testing Pirelli’s prototype tyre compounds for 2025, as Verstappen reported there was a “weird noise” emanating from his power unit – which he later described as “very disturbing” over the radio.

This prompted the team to bring his car back to the garage, and he did not return for the rest of the session after just four laps of running.

Regardless, Verstappen reckoned that he wouldn’t need to serve a grid penalty in Mexico to change any power unit components, simply chalking it up as a “day to forget”.

“From the engine side we are checking, I don’t know exactly what it is,” Verstappen said after the session. “But yeah, from my side [it was] a pretty much useless day. I did like four or five laps, and that’s not much to read into.

“It’ll be alright [without a penalty]. I never really had a good run. I did four or five laps in total and that’s even with some long run laps in it. So a day to forget.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

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Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko told Austrian broadcaster ORF that this was a recurring problem, which the team believed had previously been fixed.

He agreed with Verstappen that it was not likely to require any new power unit components that carried a penalty, and that the nature of FP2 lessened the blow to his run plan.

“It’s the same problem, and we’re in the process of finding out why it’s come back, even though it’s been fixed. It’s not a serious problem, it just needs to be solved. There is a leak somewhere,” Marko said.

“[We only did] two timed laps with Max [in FP1], and even those two timed laps weren’t at full power. So it’s going to be difficult, so thankfully this second practice session was on control tyres and we weren’t allowed to change anything, so the damage is limited.”

Verstappen was classified 19th without a time to his name in FP2, while Alex Albon did not run at all during the 90-minute session as Williams was still fixing the extensive damage to his car after an FP1 clash with Ferrari reserve Oliver Bearman.

Carlos Sainz topped FP2 at Formula 1’s 2024 Mexican Grand Prix, where George Russell crashed hard, Max Verstappen suffered repeat engine issues and the running was dominated by Pirelli’s tyre test.

In the extended 90-minute session, McLaren’s Lando Norris led the pack out of the pits and duly shot to a 1m19.895s using the 2025 prototype C5 Pirelli soft.

He was shuffled back by Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, before home hero Sergio Perez got ahead on a 1m19.150s using the same tyres as Norris.

Oscar Piastri, running the 2024 C4 compound, then nipped ahead on a 1m19.030s, before Sainz rounded out the opening five mins of running with 1m18.276s on the 2024 C4 tyres that are the mediums for this weekend’s main event.

A few minutes later, Sainz improved the benchmark to a 1m17.809s, just before Russell massively interrupted the session and Pirelli’s test with a big crash at Turn 9.

The Briton had gone too far over the inside kerbs of the preceding Turn 8, which caused his Mercedes to bottom out, and he spun off heading down towards Turn 9 – where he smashed sideways into the barriers and severely damaged his W15.

Russell climbed gingerly from the wreckage, with Mercedes later confirming he returned from the circuit’s medical centre without any injuries detected.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

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The barriers took nearly 25 minutes to repair, after which the session resumed and Sainz – now on the 2025 C4s – went even quicker to put in a 1m17.699s.

After a short burst of performance running post-red flag, as per Pirelli’s test requirement, the drivers were then switched to the high-fuel running of 10 laps on each compound they had been given to run (the same through four runs overall at both 20kg and 100kg fuel loads) for the session.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended up second based on the performance runs, 0.178s down on Sainz and ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Charles Leclerc did put in an extra flying lap while the others were being fuelled for the longer tyre tests, as he had had to wait for his Ferrari to be repaired after it was hit by Alex Albon’s Williams when being driven by Oliver Bearman in FP1.

Leclerc therefore did not get out before the red flag and when he did post-restart, he slotted into 10th on the 2025 C4s before jumping to fourth on a second attempt.

He then improved again using the 2024 C4s, but remained fourth – where he stayed to the finish, 0.188s slower than his team-mate.

Kevin Magnussen took sixth for Haas ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Perez, while Liam Lawson rounded out the top 10 for RB.

Russell’s crash meant the FP1 topper ended up down in 18th in FP2’s classification, ahead of Verstappen.

He had reported the same strange noise from his engine that had hampered his FP1 running and which Red Bull thought it had fixed between the sessions.

Further adjustments during the red flag did not improve the situation for Verstappen and he was forced to sit out the second half of the session, having also suffered a brake issue at Turn 1 during the early running.

Norris, Alonso, Zhou Guanyu, Hamilton and Leclerc headed out very late on the main event’s medium tyres, as per the allocation for teams that ran a rookie driver in FP1 that was supposed to give them an extra 30 minutes on that compound, before Russell’s crash cut that time to the bone.

Norris nevertheless used his mediums to rise to fifth in the final order, while Alonso got 11th position with a pair of personal bests late in the session and Leclerc’s only real lap on the relevant mediums featured a big lock-up at Turn 1.

Albon did not make it out of the garage as Williams was not able to repair his car before the end of the session.

George Russell endured a hefty crash in Formula 1’s second practice session at the Mexican Grand Prix to introduce a lengthy red flag.

The Briton took too much kerb at Turn 9 and it visibly upset his Mercedes’ handling as the rear of the car began to bounce, pitching Russell into the Tecpro barrier sideways.

Russell was able to get out of the car unaided – though clutching his midriff – and the nature of the impact necessitated the appearance of the medical car, which took him to the circuit’s medical centre for checks.

Mercedes has since announced that the English driver has been released from the medical centre and made his way back to the hospitality, clarifying: “He’s physically okay but it was a significant impact.”

This led to a 24-minute break in proceedings to repair the Tecpro barriers damaged in the Russell impact on the exit of Turn 9, before the session was able to get going again. 

Russell’s Mercedes sustained heavy damage to the right-hand side of the car, particularly to the sidepod and rear wing, and thus will require lengthy repairs overnight.

It was the second heavy impact sustained by Russell in consecutive weeks after he spun out at Turn 19 in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

FP2 had been extended to 90 minutes for the purposes of a Pirelli tyre test; the control tyre supplier set out the run plans for all teams – with 30 minutes of free running granted to the drivers who missed FP1 after giving up their seats to young drivers.

The additional Pirelli tyres supplied are all unmarked; each driver was given an additional two sets of tyres, one of a 2024 compound used during the weekend, and another of a 2025 construction to provide back-to-back data without visually revealing the softness of the compounds themselves. One of these includes a C6 compound at an even softer grade.