Van Gisbergen rules Supercars in Adelaide

Shane van Gisbergen has completed a perfect start to the Supercars season, winning both races at the Adelaide 500.

Shane van Gisbergen holds his trophy at the Adelaide 500.

Shane van Gisbergen has won both races in Supercars season-opener the Adelaide 500. (AAP)

Two pole positions, two race wins.

The numbers don't get much better for Holden's Shane van Gisbergen after the opening weekend of the Supercars championship in Adelaide.

As his Red Bull Holden Racing Team stablemate and defending champion Jamie Whincup failed to finish a Supercars race for the first time in 136 races, van Gisbergen made it four wins from as many starts on the streets of Adelaide in Sunday's 250km finale.

In front of a record crowd of 85,100, van Gisbergen made the most of Whincup's drama to leave South Australia with a 32-point lead in the championship standings.

"Jamie had the car to beat today and we went a bit far with our set-up and we were no good compared to yesterday," van Gisbergen said.

"It's a real shame we couldn't get a one-two ... I hate getting points gaps like that but that's part of racing and hopefully we can have fairer battles for the rest of the year."

It's the 2016 champion's 26th race win in his career and he joins Whincup (08, 09) and Marcos Ambrose (04, 05) as the only drivers to claim four consecutive victories in Adelaide.

"It's pretty special. I'm not sure what it is about this place but love driving it," he said.

Bathurst 1000 winner David Reynolds took out second place and leaves Adelaide in second place on the championship standings.

While delighted with that outcome, the Erebus Motorsport driver did have some regrets about letting van Gisbergen get past him shortly after he'd emerged from pit lane with the lead.

"If you said I was going to be fourth and second and second in the championship coming out of this round I would've taken it every day of the week," Reynolds said.

"A part of me is kind of happy but also bitterly disappointed that I didn't hold him off and try to win the race."

Holden veteran Garth Tander came home third in a solid result for the 40-year-old driver.

Ford star Chaz Mostert was fourth, a position his teammate Mark Winterbottom seemed destined to claim before a drive-through penalty in lap 56 for excessively cutting the kerb at turn two of the 2.33km street circuit.

Winterbottom would eventually come home 13th but he was not the only major name to struggle on Sunday.

Whincup was 11 seconds clear at the front with 30 laps gone when his gearbox blew up.

The seven-time driver's champion attempted to steer his Commodore back to the pits for repairs but the damage to his transaxle was too great and he had to retire for the first time since the Gold Coast event in 2013.

Ford driver Scott McLaughlin, who started the day just behind the Red Bull pair on the grid, had to settle for a 10th-place finish after a puncture on lap 25 scuppered any hope he held of a podium finish.

The championship's next stop is the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 22-25.


Share

3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world