Tasmania Supercars: Crash follows pole for van Gisbergen

Fresh off a sublime win in yesterday's opener, van Gisbergen made a fast start to Sunday's action with a dominant showing in the first of two qualifying sessions.

He did two laps good enough for pole as he and new teammate Broc Feeney locked out the front row for today's first race for Triple Eight.

Van Gisbergen then looked set to make it a pair of poles in the second session, going purple in the first two sectors on a final green tyre run.

However an attempt to get a two off Tim Slade down the back straight went awry, van Gisbergen clattering into Slade's door at Turn 6.

Both cars were left with damage as van Gisbergen was forced to settle for third from his first-run banker – although the indigent is now in the hands of the stewards.

"It was a bit of a shame," said van Gisbergen of the Slade bungle.

"He mucked up out of the hairpin and let someone go. I was on a ripper, big tow, and he kind of went wide at the sweeper. I thought, 'okay, he's giving me the line'. And then at the last minute he came back to the race line.

"I shat myself I went up the inside but then he tried to race me and turned down. I'm on a heater, he's not.

"Lucky we put down a banker, that's the saving grace."

Slade, who ended up ninth on the grid for the third race, had a different take.

"Shane bombed me at the last corner," he said. "We were just going to do a warm-up lap, no lights on or anything. It's not as if he was going to start lap. He just used us up on the exit.

"That's pretty much it. It's annoying not to get a lap in at the end and creates unnecessary work for the guys."

The van Gisbergen/Slade shunt was good news for Will Davison, who ended up on pole for Race 3.

The Dick Johnson Racing driver put all his eggs in the first run basket, running his sole set of fresh rubber to set his 50.551s.

As it turned out nobody could run down that, helped by the red flag prompted by the van Gisbergen incident.

"We had one set of tyres then so I just knew if we put it together we'd be right there in contention, so we decided to go out the gate," said Davison.

"Yeah it was stressful but I knew the lap was pretty good, I knew we'd be in the top few. I was watching Shane's sectors, it was going to be really close until the incident."

Other noteworthy performances included Mark Winterbottom, who will share the second row with David Reynolds for the start of Race 2 later today.

Matt Stone Racing, meanwhile, had a brilliant second session, Jack Le Brocq grabbing second for Race 3 whole Todd Hazelwood was fourth.

It was tough going for a pair of more fancied Holden teams, though, with both Walkinshaw Andretti United and Erebus Motorsport struggling.

Nick Percat led the way for WAU in the first session with the ninth fastest time but could only manage 21st in the second.

Chaz Mostert, meanwhile, was a disappointing 16th and 19th from the two sessions.

As for Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, they were 23rd and 24th respectively in the first session and 16th and 23rd in the second session.

Qualifying Race 2

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	50.484
2	88	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore ZB	50.636	0.152	0.152
3	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	50.648	0.164	0.012
4	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	50.712	0.228	0.064
5	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	50.742	0.258	0.029
6	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	50.751	0.267	0.009
7	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	50.773	0.289	0.022
8	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	50.777	0.293	0.004
9	2	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	50.795	0.311	0.017
10	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	50.824	0.340	0.028
11	22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	50.824	0.340	0.000
12	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	50.857	0.373	0.033
13	34	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	50.868	0.384	0.011
14	8	Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore ZB	50.876	0.392	0.007
15	56	Jake Kostecki	Ford Mustang GT	50.914	0.430	0.038
16	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	50.925	0.441	0.011
17	10	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	50.941	0.457	0.015
18	5	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	50.980	0.496	0.039
19	14	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	50.982	0.498	0.002
20	76	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	51.008	0.524	0.025
21	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	51.012	0.528	0.003
22	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	51.022	0.538	0.010
23	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	51.049	0.565	0.026
24	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	51.063	0.579	0.014
25	55	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	51.097	0.613	0.033
View full results

Qualifying Race 3

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	50.551
2	34	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	50.615	0.064	0.064
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	50.618	0.066	0.002
4	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	50.650	0.099	0.032
5	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	50.672	0.121	0.022
6	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	50.733	0.182	0.061
7	88	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore ZB	50.847	0.295	0.113
8	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	50.856	0.305	0.009
9	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	50.886	0.335	0.030
10	10	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	50.910	0.359	0.023
11	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	50.938	0.387	0.028
12	56	Jake Kostecki	Ford Mustang GT	50.952	0.400	0.013
13	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	50.952	0.400	0.000
14	5	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	51.007	0.455	0.054
15	55	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	51.023	0.472	0.016
16	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	51.055	0.503	0.031
17	14	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	51.071	0.520	0.016
18	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	51.104	0.553	0.033
19	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	51.110	0.558	0.005
20	8	Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore ZB	51.113	0.562	0.003
21	2	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	51.159	0.607	0.045
22	76	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	51.176	0.624	0.016
23	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	51.193	0.641	0.017
24	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	51.829	1.278	0.636
25	22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	51.909	1.357	0.079
View full results