The Bend Supercars: Van Gisbergen dominates Race 2

Shane van Gisbergen dominated the first of two Sunday sprint races at The Bend.

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#DriverCarGap
197 Shane van GisbergenHolden Commodore ZB 
27 Andre HeimgartnerFord Mustang GT 1.146
317 Scott McLaughlinFord Mustang GT 1.874
412 Fabian CoulthardFord Mustang GT 12.204
599 Anton De PasqualeHolden Commodore ZB 15.864
615 Rick KellyFord Mustang GT 16.030
79 David ReynoldsHolden Commodore ZB 16.885
86 Cameron WatersFord Mustang GT 17.187
98 Nick PercatHolden Commodore ZB 20.086
1055 Jack Le BrocqFord Mustang GT 25.532
1125 Chaz MostertHolden Commodore ZB 25.570
1214 Todd HazelwoodHolden Commodore ZB 25.626
1320 Scott PyeHolden Commodore ZB 25.678
1444 James CourtneyFord Mustang GT 26.806
1518 Mark WinterbottomHolden Commodore ZB 27.537
162 Bryce FullwoodHolden Commodore ZB 27.847
1788 Jamie WhincupHolden Commodore ZB 33.524
183 Macauley JonesHolden Commodore ZB 33.861
1922 Chris PitherHolden Commodore ZB 39.069
2019 Alex DavisonHolden Commodore ZB 39.462
214 Jack SmithHolden Commodore ZB 39.764
2235 Garry JacobsonHolden Commodore ZB 43.558
235 Lee HoldsworthFord Mustang GT 43.630
2434 Zane GoddardHolden Commodore ZB 1’07.567
View full results


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