Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood have won the 2026 Bathurst 1000 in one of the most extraordinary finishes at Mount Panorama, taking victory after race leader Anton De Pasquale ran out of fuel on the 161st and final lap. Kostecki drove the number 17 Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Mustang across the line to secure a result that had appeared to be slipping away earlier in the afternoon.

De Pasquale and co-driver Lee Holdsworth had positioned their number 18 Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro for victory through pit strategy. But the car did not have enough fuel to complete the final lap. De Pasquale slowed on Mountain Straight and Kostecki swept past, turning a day of fluctuating fortunes into a major win for Dick Johnson Racing.

Will Brown and Scott Pye finished second, with Zach Bates and Aaron Seton taking third. For Kostecki and Hazelwood, it was another Bathurst victory as a pairing after their 2024 success. For De Pasquale and Holdsworth, the ending was devastating: the chequered flag was almost in reach, but one of endurance racing's most basic calculations proved decisive.

The final moments unfolded after a late safety-car intervention had tightened the field. De Pasquale restarted at the front and appeared capable of defending the lead. Team 18 had been asking him to conserve fuel, however, and the margin available in the tank was increasingly uncertain. On the final tour, the number 18 Camaro faltered.

Supercars reported that Kostecki passed De Pasquale as the cars headed down Mountain Straight. The Chevrolet subsequently stopped at The Chase and did not finish. A result that seemed headed for a Team 18 breakthrough instead became a dramatic victory for the Shell V-Power Ford, rewarding a crew that had spent much of the race fighting to recover lost track position.

The fuel failure was particularly cruel because De Pasquale had driven a strong late phase of the event. His team's approach had put him ahead of several rivals at a crucial moment. Choosing when to stop and how much fuel to add can create a significant time advantage, but it becomes a liability if a car cannot reach the end of the 1,000-kilometre distance.

Engineer Andrew Donnelly repeatedly directed De Pasquale to save fuel as the laps ran down, according to Supercars. Those instructions signal that the team knew the situation was tight; they are not proof that every possible way to recover fuel had been available or ignored. The team now faces the task of reviewing a strategy which came extraordinarily close to succeeding.

De Pasquale told Supercars after the race that the shortfall had become clear too late to correct. He said his car had been performing strongly before the outcome changed. His disappointment was plain, but the precise reasons the fuel prediction proved wrong should be distinguished from any speculation about an individual mistake. Team 18's own investigation will be important to the final assessment.

Kostecki and Hazelwood were strong throughout the early and middle stages, with the number 17 Ford running at or near the front. Hazelwood's stint helped the car gain and maintain an advantage in the second pit-stop cycle, according to the official Supercars race updates. In the opening 100 laps there were no safety-car interruptions, a demanding run in which strategy and consistent pace mattered greatly.

The team's biggest setback came on lap 125. A brake change at a pit stop took longer than planned, allowing multiple rivals to pass while Kostecki was stationary. Zach Bates, Anton De Pasquale, Will Brown and Jack Le Brocq all moved into more favourable positions as the number 17 car returned to the race.

The tactical choice was not as simple as adding the largest possible amount of fuel at every stop. Supercars' official race account says some teams explored five stops rather than the six expected for most of the field, trading track position against fuel and tyre requirements. Team 18's plan was to place De Pasquale at the front with a shorter final stop, while its rivals were trying to recover ground in the remaining laps. That strategy was competitive for hours; the decisive problem was that the car ultimately lacked the fuel needed to finish.

At that stage the result could easily have been framed as a painful missed opportunity for Dick Johnson Racing. The car had been fast enough to lead, but a slow stop in a tightly contested race had cost it a valuable margin. Kostecki's task was to recover on track while balancing tyre performance, fuel and the likelihood of a late neutralisation.

Rather than settle for a minor placing, Kostecki began to close back in. Official reporting said he set successive Gen3 lap records on laps 152 and 153, showing the pace remaining in the Mustang. He moved past Brown in an aggressive battle and then worked his way into a position to challenge the leading cars.

The decisive safety car followed Chaz Mostert's crash at Forrest's Elbow late in the race. The neutralisation reduced gaps and created a short sprint to the finish. It also complicated fuel calculations for drivers trying to make their remaining supplies last. The late restart changed the complexion of the race, but the ultimate failure of De Pasquale's car was still a fuel shortage, not an incident involving Kostecki.

Rookie Zach Bates had already supplied one of the weekend's compelling stories by qualifying the number 10 Bendix Chevrolet on pole with co-driver Aaron Seton. Their pace made them genuine contenders rather than incidental participants in the closing drama. Bates remained in the fight as more experienced drivers moved through the field in the final stages.

Kostecki overtook Bates in the closing dash and put himself in position to capitalise when De Pasquale's car slowed. Brown and Pye claimed second in their Ford, while Bates and Seton completed the podium in third. That order reflected more than a single moment: it was shaped by hours of pit strategy, driver changes, mechanical management and on-track decisions.

Brown's result also had championship implications, with the Red Bull Ampol driver receiving the Enduro Cup according to race reporting. Yet the emotional centre of the finish remained the contest between the two cars that had dominated the final story: the red-and-yellow Shell V-Power Mustang and the DEWALT-branded Camaro running short of fuel.

A Bathurst 1000 is not simply a sprint extended over a long distance. Teams manage brakes, tyres, fuel consumption, co-driver obligations and the possibility of safety cars over 161 laps. An apparently small advantage at one pit stop can be overturned later by a mechanical delay or the need to save fuel. Sunday's finish displayed those competing demands as clearly as any race could.

The drivers and teams also faced unusually demanding conditions during a fast race that ran a long time without a safety-car break. That pace made the precision of each stop important. A decision that saves seconds while the car is stationary may matter little if it costs a result at the finish; equally, a cautious stop can drop a driver into traffic and compromise a winning chance.

The timing of the final pit sequence explains the unusually narrow margins. Team 18 called De Pasquale in on lap 139, while Kostecki made his last stop on lap 150 and began an 11-lap charge. Supercars reported Kostecki setting consecutive Gen3 lap records as he closed on cars ahead. The late safety car then compressed the field into a three-lap sprint to the chequered flag. A calculation made to gain seconds in the pits was suddenly exposed to the risks of a hard final run.

The triumph gave Dick Johnson Racing its first Bathurst 1000 victory since 2019, according to Supercars. It represented a significant moment for a team that had been working to return to the top of Australian endurance racing. The final-lap circumstances made the win startling, but it was not a victory achieved solely by luck: the number 17 Ford had demonstrated competitive speed throughout the day.

Kostecki and Hazelwood also have a well-established partnership at Mount Panorama. They won the 2024 race together, when Hazelwood claimed his first Supercars career victory. Their reunion at the front of the 2026 event added another chapter, this time decided not by holding off a rival but by seizing an unexpected opening when that rival's race unravelled.

The distinction between the two teams' experiences is stark. Team 18 executed a plan that appeared capable of putting its car first at the flag, while Dick Johnson Racing recovered from a time-consuming brake-stop problem. Both strategies and crews shaped the result. Only one combination ended the afternoon in victory lane.

The closing kilometres distilled the uncertainty that makes endurance racing distinctive. A driver can lead with the finish almost visible and still lose everything through a shortage of fuel. Another can appear to have thrown away the day in the pits and yet regain the lead after hours of effort and a well-timed pass.

The setback for the number 17 Ford was also highly specific. Its lap-125 brake change ran long, costing positions to multiple rivals even though the car had earlier looked in control. Over a 1,000-kilometre race, brake servicing, tyre life and fuel can be interdependent decisions rather than isolated mechanical chores. The dramatic outcome is therefore not just that one car ran dry: it is that a team recovering from a costly stop retained enough speed to be in position when the leader slowed.

The result should be recorded accurately: Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood won in the Shell V-Power Racing Team's number 17 Ford Mustang. Anton De Pasquale, sharing Team 18's number 18 Chevrolet with Lee Holdsworth, ran out of fuel while leading on the final lap and did not finish. Brown and Pye were second; Bates and Seton third.

The finish may invite endless debate about whether the fuel calculation could have been different. Such debate is part of motorsport, but a firm conclusion about a team's internal decision-making requires more evidence than the final result. Supercars has reported the account of the drivers and crew; the specific analysis of what went wrong belongs to the team.

For the thousands of spectators at Mount Panorama and viewers across Australia, Sunday's Bathurst 1000 supplied a last-lap reversal unlikely to be forgotten quickly. For Kostecki and Hazelwood it was a second triumph together. For De Pasquale and Holdsworth, the race was a painful demonstration of how little separates glory from failure over 1,000 kilometres.