Eastern Creek V8 Supercars: Shane van Gisbergen dominates in wet
Shane van Gisbergen won in a dominant display of wet-weather driving in the first V8 Supercars race at a soaked Eastern Creek on Saturday
Tekno Holden driver van Gisbergen made a charging start from sixth to third at the lights to put him on the gearboxes of poleman Jamie Whincup and Scott McLaughlin.
Poor visibility from the first-lap spray resulted in contact between Tim Slade and James Moffat in the middle of the pack, which turned Slade around and left him a sitting duck for David Reynolds to plough into at Turn 3 (pictured below).
The shunt ended the race for both drivers, and brought the safety car out for the first time in the race.
On the restart van Gisbergen immediately made it one up on the podium to second, passing McLaughlin with ease before careering past Whincup for the lead at Turn 6 - seemingly having the grip that others were desperately searching for when the championship leader ran wide.
Van Gisbergen then consistently set fastest laps to the end to take his second win of the season.
Whincup could only fall back down the field, first seeing McLaughlin sail past - although the Volvo would subsequently retire - then being hounded by Triple Eight Holden team-mate Craig Lowndes for a number of laps before losing out to both Lowndes and Garth Tander.
Indeed, Tander made superb progress to move up from his 14th place starting position to pass Lowndes and finish second.
Lowndes held off Whincup for third, with Michael Caruso in fifth ahead of Rick Kelly.
Will Davison had to work hard to claim seventh after a race long duel first with Nick Percat, and then James Courtney who finished eighth.
Jason Bright and Scott Pye rounded out the top 10 on the road, but Pye was later given a penalty for an incident with Percat.
Championship challenger Mark Winterbottom had a race to forget, running three seconds off the pace of the charging van Gisbergen.
He was the first to dive into the pits for another set of wet tyres to help him perform more competitive laptimes, which eventually saw his recovery drive finish in 11th after Pye's penalty.
Results - 25 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Shane van Gisbergen Tekno Holden 47m54.8944s 2. Garth Tander HRT Holden +9.1565s 3. Craig Lowndes Triple Eight Holden +16.7233s 4. Jamie Whincup Triple Eight Holden +20.4712s 5. Michael Caruso Nissan +20.7873s 6. Rick Kelly Nissan +21.9875s 7. Will Davison Erebus Mercedes +22.2081s 8. James Courtney HRT Holden +23.8344s 9. Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden +25.1749s 10. Lee Holdsworth Erebus Mercedes +33.0974s 11. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford +35.8268s 12. James Moffat Nissan +35.8519s 13. Chaz Mostert FPR Ford +36.7295s 14. Russell Ingall Dumbrell Holden +37.1051s 15. Jack Perkins Schwerkolt/FPR Ford +37.3019s 16. Nick Percat Walkinshaw/HRT Holden +38.6013s 17. Dale Wood Britek/BJR Holden +38.8581s 18. David Wall Dick Johnson Ford +39.3558s 19. Robert Dahlgren GRM Volvo +39.5558s 20. Scott Pye Dick Johnson Ford +1m03.0877s Retirements: Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Holden 16 laps Todd Kelly Nissan 16 laps Scott McLaughlin GRM Volvo 11 laps Tim Slade Rosenberg/HRT Holden 1 lap David Reynolds Rod Nash/FPR Ford 1 lap
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