Shane van Gisbergen wins final Melbourne V8 Supercars race
Shane van Gisbergen triumphed in the final race of the V8 Supercars' non-championship Australian Grand Prix support event in Melbourne, ending Mark Winterbottom's weekend of dominance
Ford Performance Racing driver Winterbottom had won the previous three races, but had to settle for fifth on Sunday following a poor start. That result was still enough to ensure he picked up the AUS$100,000 prize for the outright winner of the event.
Van Gisbergen claimed the race four victory for Stone Brothers with a late charge.
While many drivers made their compulsory pitstop on lap one and immediately switched from hards to softs, van Gisbergen waited until lap five before coming in, and found himself behind early stoppers Garth Tander (Holden Racing Team) and Fabian Coulthard (Brad Jones Racing Holden).
But van Gisbergen had the speed and slightly fresher rubber to catch and pass the two Holdens in the closing laps, and once Jason Bright, Dean Fiore and David Wall made very late pitstops from the front of the field, van Gisbergen emerged from that in the lead.
Will Davison (FPR) led most of the race after also deciding to start on softs and make a late tyre change, but could not build up enough of a gap and finished fourth behind Tander and Coulthard.
Series champion Jamie Whincup's tough weekend continued as he had to pit with brake problems on his Triple Eight Holden.
Results - 15 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Shane van Gisbergen Stone Brothers Ford 30m36.8057s 2. Garth Tander HRT Holden + 2.6394s 3. Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Holden + 2.9450s 4. Will Davison FPR Ford + 3.6974s 5. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford + 6.3185s 6. David Reynolds Rod Nash/FPR Ford + 12.1781s 7. Lee Holdsworth Stone Brothers Ford + 14.8582s 8. Craig Lowndes Triple 8 Holden + 17.5675s 9. Todd Kelly Kelly Holden + 17.9739s 10. Rick Kelly Kelly Holden + 18.8300s 11. Tim Slade Rosenberg/SBR Ford + 20.3480s 12. James Moffat Dick Johnson Ford + 20.5407s 13. Steven Johnson Dick Johnson Ford + 21.4472s 14. Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden + 23.7629s 15. Tony D'Alberto D'Alberto Ford + 25.2379s 16. Steve Owen Dick Johnson Ford + 26.4468s 17. Michael Caruso Garry Rogers Holden + 27.0262s 18. Russell Ingall Walkinshaw Holden + 28.1745s 19. Dean Fiore Triple F Ford + 30.4765s 20. Greg Murphy Kelly Holden + 32.3839s 21. Jonathon Webb Tekno Holden + 34.0203s 22. Michael Patrizi Tekno Holden + 39.1293s 23. Alexandre Premat Garry Rogers Holden + 51.9371s Did not finish: David Wall Britek/BJR Holden 14 laps Jamie Whincup Triple 8 Holden 6 laps James Courtney HRT Holden 5 laps
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments