2019 Melbourne 400

The 2019 Melbourne 400 (known for sponsorship purposes as the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400) was a motor racing event for the Supercars Championship held as a support event to the 2019 Australian Grand Prix from 14 March to 17 March 2019. It was held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit and consisted of two races of 70 kilometres and two races of 130 kilometres. It was the second event of fifteen in the 2019 Supercars Championship and the second running of the Melbourne 400 event.

Tickford Racing's Chaz Mostert won the Larry Perkins Trophy for accumulating the most points over the weekend. The event saw the running of the 1,000th Australian Touring Car Championship race in Race 4, won by DJR Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin. McLaughlin claimed three pole positions and three race wins across the weekend, with the new-for-2019 Ford Mustang GT proving dominant. McLaughlin left the event continuing to hold his championship lead over Jamie Whincup by 31 points.

This event was the second of fifteen in the 2019 Supercars Championship and the second running of the Melbourne 400. Defending series champion Scott McLaughlin held the championship lead entering the event after winning both races at the Adelaide 500.

Two 30-minute practice sessions were held prior to qualifying on Thursday. Chaz Mostert was fastest in the first session with a margin of 0.4s over Anton de Pasquale with a time of 1:55.5743s. The second session saw DJR Team Penske claim the first two positions with Scott McLaughlin setting a time of 1:54.5518, 0.2s faster than teammate Fabian Coulthard and 0.6s clear of Mostert.

Four 10-minute qualifying sessions were held to decide the grid for each race. Qualifying for Races 3 and 4 was held on Thursday afternoon with McLaughlin claiming pole position for both races. McLaughlin's time of 1:53.8280s in qualifying for Race 3 was a new Supercars lap record, beating teammate Fabian Coulthard's previous lap record by 0.6s. Mostert was left just 22nd in the first session after infringing track limits on his first flying lap. He recovered in qualifying for Race 4 to be second, 0.128s slower than McLaughlin's best time of 1:54.2643s. Jamie Whincup qualified 3rd, ahead of the Ford Mustangs of Cam Waters, Coulthard and Will Davison.

Qualifying for Races 5 and 6 was held early Friday afternoon. McLaughlin claimed his 50th career pole position for Race 5 with a time of 1:53.9990s, 0.5s clear of Waters. Shane van Gisbergen was left 12th after making a mistake at the penultimate corner on his second flying lap. Qualifying for Race 6 saw Mostert pip McLaughlin by 0.08s with a time of 1:54.2783s to claim his first pole position since the 2017 Vodafone Gold Coast 600. Whincup qualified 3rd ahead of Waters and van Gisbergen.

Race 3 was held on Friday afternoon and consisted of 130 kilometres and 25 laps. McLaughlin converted from his pole position to finish unchallenged ahead of Coulthard and Waters, leading home an all-Mustang top 5. Mostert recovered from his 22nd starting position to finish 5th ahead of the best placed Holden of Tim Slade and James Courtney. Van Gisbergen retired from the race after an engine failure while running fourth with four laps remaining.

A post-race investigation into a pitlane incident in which a tyre from Scott Pye's car was collected by Nick Percat during pitstops on lap 10 resulted in Walkinshaw Andretti United receiving a penalty of 30 team championship points and a fine of $3,000. Rick Kelly received a post-race 43-second time penalty, demoting him to 22nd, after his car was released from the pit bay into the path of James Golding.