Supercars: Blanchard Racing fumes after teammates Aaron Love and James Courtney collide

Teammates Aaron Love and James Courtney were involved in a bizarre collision at the start of Supercars qualifying which left their team principal fuming.

Blanchard Racing Team principal Tim Blanchard labelled a crash between his drivers Aaron Love and James Courtney as “unacceptable” after a baffling incident at the start of qualifying on Saturday at Sydney Motorsport Park.

As the Supercars drivers were making their way out of pit lane for the start of the first qualifying session, series veteran Courtney’s Mustang was crunched by his 22-year-old teammate on their out lap.

Courtney had his lights on to indicate he was going to drive past Love, who was weaving to warm up his tyres and then slammed into the side of the 2010 Supercars champion.

The 44-year-old’s Ford was sent spinning and came to rest near the concrete wall, suffering heavy damage which prevented him from returning to the track for the first qualifying session.

The incident immediately drew the ire of Blanchard, who was left shocked looking on from the team garage.

“We have got to have a bit of a chat, but that stuff is just totally unacceptable,” Blanchard said.

“We have got to sit down as a team and work out what has gone wrong there.

“We just can’t be making mistakes like that.”

Aaron Love and James Courtney collide.

Courtney indicated it had been discussed within the team for him to pass Love in a bid to speed up his attempt to get two fast laps in during the first qualifying session.

But Love said that plan had not been discussed.

Courtney said the incident was a “big one”.

“Yesterday I was quite tight with the time for getting two laps in, so we agreed to get on with it and try and get out there to make sure we got two laps in,” Courtney said.

“I was going past and he obviously didn’t see me and weaved into me.

“It was agreed with the team that was what we were going to do, so we’ll go and have a chat now and see what comes of it I guess.

“It was a big one, it sort of plucked the corner out pretty hard, so the guys have got a lot of work to do.

“To put a bit more on those guys is disappointing. But I’m sure the guys will do the best they can to get the Snowy car out on track and I’ll just have to do something spectacular tonight from the back of the grid.”

Love, in his second full-time season in Supercars, said he was unaware Courtney was going to pass him.

“It’s not nice at all, especially when it’s the sister car,” Love said.

“From our point of view, there was no plan for him to pass. I had no idea that he was going to pass me.

“Unfortunately, it is what it is now. We’ll have to review it later on and see why it happened. Now we’re just going to try and hopefully get back out there and we have still got a job to do.”

Love was later fined $2000 - half suspended on the condition he did not commit a similar infringement before the end of the year - and hit with a four-place grid penalty by the stewards for Saturday night’s race.That pushed Love back to last behind Courtney, having qualified 24th.

Originally published as Supercars: Blanchard Racing fumes after teammates Aaron Love and James Courtney collide