Supercars Sydney: Van Gisbergen three-stops to victory in season opener

The roll of the strategic dice worked well for van Gisbergen, who easily ran down race-long rivals Anton De Pasquale and Will Brown during his short final stint.

That sealed a perfect start to his title defence, the Kiwi joined on the podium by De Pasquale and a fast-finishing Chaz Mostert. 

Andre Heimgartner was the only driver in the lead group to start on the supersoft compound, however a poor start meant he went backwards, from fourth to sixth, before going forwards.

Once he was going forwards, Heimgartner made rapid progress, working his way into second by lap four before catching and passing early leader De Pasquale on lap eight. 

It was third-placed van Gisbergen who was first of the lead group to pit, taking on another set of softs on lap 20. 

Heimgartner and De Pasquale, at that point split by around four seconds, followed suit on lap 24, Heimgartner switching to the soft as De Pasquale took on supersofts.

As the stops shook out, van Gisbergen took over the lead ahead of a supersofts-shod Will Brown. 

Heimgartner and De Pasquale resumed in fifth and sixth respectively, although De Pasquale - with his supersoft tyres - wasted little time clearing the Kiwi and then David Reynolds to move into third.

He then closed up onto the back of Brown, but couldn't find a way through into second place until lap 42. 

Will Brown, Erebus Holden

Photo by: Edge Photographics

By that stage, van Gisbergen was 12s down the road, however the Kiwi opted to pit on that same lap to take on supersofts, which committed him to a three-stopper.

Brown followed suit two laps later, while De Pasquale stayed out on his supersofts as the race leader until lap 52.

The lead then went back to van Gisbergen, who bolted as he looked to build a big enough lead to take his extra stop and still be in the hunt. 

The Kiwi made that final stop on lap 63 with around 40s up his sleeve over Brown and De Pasquale.

He resumed around 10s behind leader Brown, but with significantly better rubber for the 14-lap run home.

Helping van Gisbergen's cause was Brown and De Pasquale squabbling over the lead. De Pasquale managed to break down Brown's defence 10 laps from the end, however by that point van Gisbergen was already on their bumpers. 

By the end of that very same lap, he was through both Brown and De Pasquale and on his way to a 19.5s win.

The victory also marked Jamie Whincup's first as Triple Eight team principal and first for van Gisbergen with his new engineer Andrew Edwards. 

"It's a team win - I had no idea what was happening in the middle of the race," said van Gisbergen. 

"We're lucky the weather held out. We've had some big [staff] changes, but the team feels the same. It's a great way to start."

De Pasquale finished second while Brown, hurting in terms of tyre quality, dropped like a stone in the closing laps.

He was passed by Mostert, Will Davison, Brodie Kostecki and Nick Percat as he slumped to seventh ahead of Slade and full-time debutant Broc Feeney. 

Heimgartner was running sixth until the very end of the race, but seemed to run out of fuel on the final lap, which dropped him to 15th. 

Scott Pye, meanwhile, endured a terrible start to his new season, the powersteering failing on his Team 18 Holden after contact with James Courtney inside the first 10 laps of the race.

He limped back to the pits for lengthy repairs, making a brief appearance late on before retiring. 

Reynolds was hit by a mechanical problem, too, an issue with his gearbox costing him 12 laps in the pits.

The Sydney SuperNight continues with a second 300-kilometre race on Sunday.

Result - 77 laps

Cla	Driver		Car	Gap
1	Shane van Gisbergen		Holden Commodore ZB
2	Anton De Pasquale		Ford Mustang GT	19.558
3	Chaz Mostert		Holden Commodore ZB	31.053
4	Will Davison		Ford Mustang GT	37.500
5	Brodie Kostecki		Holden Commodore ZB	38.806
6	Nick Percat		Holden Commodore ZB	39.393
7	Will Brown		Holden Commodore ZB	41.113
8	Tim Slade		Ford Mustang GT	50.790
9	Broc Feeney		Holden Commodore ZB	52.477
10	James Courtney		Ford Mustang GT	54.523
11	Cameron Waters		Ford Mustang GT	1'03.149
12	Bryce Fullwood		Holden Commodore ZB	1'15.071
13	Jack Le Brocq		Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.630
14	Todd Hazelwood		Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.811
15	Andre Heimgartner		Holden Commodore ZB	1'27.045
16	Mark Winterbottom		Holden Commodore ZB
17	Jack Smith		Holden Commodore ZB
18	Garry Jacobson		Holden Commodore ZB
19	Jake Kostecki		Ford Mustang GT
20	Thomas Randle		Ford Mustang GT
21	Lee Holdsworth		Ford Mustang GT
22	Macauley Jones		Holden Commodore ZB
23	Chris Pither		Holden Commodore ZB
24	David Reynolds		Ford Mustang GT
	Scott Pye		Holden Commodore ZB
View full results