Sydney Supercars: Van Gisbergen wins, stop drama robs Brown
Shane van Gisbergen won under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park after Will Brown was robbed at a shot of a first victory by a faulty wheel nut.
Photo by: Edge Photographics
Brown, who took a sensational pole, made a perfect start to the race, holding off Triple Eight pair Jamie Whincup and van Gisbergen on the opening lap before settling into the lead.
The rookie continued to lead until Lap 6 when he pitted to cover Whincup, who had stopped a lap earlier.
However his race unravelled in the lane, a faulty wheel nut leading to a 20-odd second stop that took him out of the running for victory.
That effectively left the two T8 drivers in control of the race, van Gisbergen leading for the next six laps as he went long on his set of hard compound Dunlops.
That meant he came out behind Whincup, who enjoyed the short-term benefit of the undercut, but had significantly better tyre condition.
On Lap 18 van Gisbergen eased his way past his teammate to take over a lead he would hold until the finish.
His final winning margin over Whincup was 17s, the one-two coming in what is Triple Eight's 250th round in Supercars.
"I can't thank Red Bull Ampol Racing enough," said van Gisbergen. "Admittedly the fastest car was at the back, so I'm excited to see how we go against them tomorrow. But the team has done a great job. I hope it was a good show."
The battle for third place boiled down to a tense scrap between Will Davison and Nick Percat in the final third of the race.
Percat threw everything he had at a defensive Davison, particularly in the closing laps, but Davison was able to hold on by a few tenths.
Post-race, however, Davison was more worried about Lap 1 contact with van Gisbergen than sent him wide at Turn 2.
"I tried to go two wide with Shane through [Turn] 1, I don't know what his problem is with me but he tried to screw me in practice this morning, just had me off out of [Turn] 1," said Davison.
"Bit weird. But that's not my excuse, I wasn't quick enough early on the hard tyres."
Brodie Kostecki was in the hunt for that podium fight, only for Erebus Motorsport's night to go from bad to worse early in the second stint. The #99 Holden driver was slapped with a drive-through for speeding in pitlane, 23rd the best he could manage at the finish.
Todd Hazelwood finished fifth ahead of Jack Le Brocq, who was best of the drivers to run the 'alternate' strategy.
The Tickford driver started on the softs rather than the hards, and was able to work his way through to second place before switching to the hard.
He then resumed in what was effectively fourth, but lost spots to the two Brad Jones Racing drivers on the soft tyres.
Tim Slade and Cam Waters finished seventh and eighth, while Scott Pye made good progress to finish ninth after starting outside the Top 20.
Bryce Fullwood came home 10th after running the softs-to-hards like Le Brocq.
Brown, meanwhile, recovered to 11th, one spot ahead of Anton De Pasquale that came from the very back of the grid due to his gearbox issue in qualifying.
Race results:
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 97 |
Shane van Gisbergen
|
Holden Commodore ZB | |
2 | 88 |
Jamie Whincup
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 17.002 |
3 | 17 |
Will Davison
|
Ford Mustang GT | 24.715 |
4 | 8 |
Nick Percat
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 25.303 |
5 | 14 |
Todd Hazelwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 26.214 |
6 | 5 |
Jack Le Brocq
|
Ford Mustang GT | 30.398 |
7 | 3 |
Tim Slade
|
Ford Mustang GT | 32.916 |
8 | 6 |
Cameron Waters
|
Ford Mustang GT | 33.840 |
9 | 20 |
Scott Pye
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 38.927 |
10 | 2 |
Bryce Fullwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 38.948 |
11 | 9 |
Will Brown
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 47.502 |
12 | 11 |
Anton De Pasquale
|
Ford Mustang GT | 48.165 |
13 | 96 |
Macauley Jones
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 50.482 |
14 | 25 |
Chaz Mostert
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 54.330 |
15 | 44 |
James Courtney
|
Ford Mustang GT | 55.685 |
16 | 34 |
Jake Kostecki
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 57.694 |
17 | 19 |
Fabian Coulthard
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'02.160 |
18 | 18 |
Mark Winterbottom
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'03.021 |
19 | 4 |
Jack Smith
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'03.983 |
20 | 22 |
Garry Jacobson
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.469 |
21 | 35 |
Zane Goddard
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.838 |
22 | 55 |
Thomas Randle
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'09.221 |
23 | 99 |
Brodie Kostecki
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.588 |
24 | 26 |
Luke Youlden
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'19.162 |
25 | 27 |
Kurt Kostecki
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'25.667 |
7 |
Andre Heimgartner
|
Ford Mustang GT | ||
View full results |
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