The Bend Supercars: Van Gisbergen dominates Race 2

The Triple Eight driver set up the win with a bold move at the first corner, running a high line to sweep past the pair of fast-starting Penske Fords.

He then went long in the first stint, not taking his mandatory service until Lap 14.

That meant being undercut by both Chaz Mostert and Scott McLaughlin, who had stopped on Laps 5 and 6 respectively, but van Gisbergen had the benefit of new rear rubber for the run home.

That helped him pass McLaughlin on his out-lap, before taking the lead off Mostert at the start of Lap 15.

From there he was able to cruise to a 1.1s win. 

"What a turnaround from yesterday," said van Gisbergen. "We had no tyre life, we kept blistering them. I struggled at the start [today], taking it easy, and then the car came alive."

Andre Heimgartner ended up second thanks to a brilliant move on both Mostert and McLaughlin on Lap 15. 

McLaughlin finished third, right behind Heimgartner, while Mostert struggled with tyre life in the second stint and dropped all the way to 11th by the finish.

That paved the way for Fabian Coulthard, who had run third early in the race, to charge home in fourth, making it an all-Kiwi top four – a first in Supercars history.

Jamie Whincup, meanwhile, dropped 50 points in the title battle with McLaughlin thanks to a lowly 17th place finish.

The seven-time champion was making decent progress from 11th on the grid, only to lose a heap of time during his stop due to an air spike issue.

He's now 201 points adrift of McLaughlin with five races to go. 

Race 2 results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB
2	7	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	1.146
3	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1.874
4	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	12.204
5	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	15.864
6	15	Rick Kelly	Ford Mustang GT	16.030
7	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	16.885
8	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	17.187
9	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	20.086
10	55	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	25.532
11	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	25.570
12	14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	25.626
13	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	25.678
14	44	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	26.806
15	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	27.537
16	2	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	27.847
17	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	33.524
18	3	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	33.861
19	22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	39.069
20	19	Alex Davison	Holden Commodore ZB	39.462
21	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	39.764
22	35	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	43.558
23	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	43.630
24	34	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.567
View full results