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The fierce rivalry of Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen has exploded to new levels after an enormously frustrating day for Supercars championship leader McLaughlin as van Gisbergen scored his first two victories of the season.
McLaughlin took aim at van Gisbergen after the third and final race of the Townsville SuperSprint on Sunday for a highly controversial pass that helped top championship contender McLaughlin, who is also van Gisbergen’s teammate.
At the end of the third race, race leader McLaughlin was attacked by Triple Eight teammates Van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup.
McLaughlin had faded tires and appeared to give Van Gisbergen race room to make the pass, but van Gisbergen hit McLaughlin as he made the move to allow Whincup to pass McLaughlin in second place.
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Scott McLaughlin was disappointed in Garry Jacobson’s actions.
The top three stayed in that order and McLaughlin was quick to accuse van Gisbergen, who also won the second race of the Townsville SuperSprint on Sunday, of helping his teammate.
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“He’s made a lot of clean passes there over the years and that was pretty normal … just a big push at the end there,” McLaughlin said on the Sky Sports broadcast on Supercars.
“I understand, he is playing as a team, but it would be nice to have a more fair battle,” he said.
Interestingly, van Gisbergen admitted to “doing the team thing” and acknowledged that McLaughlin was furious with the aggressive maneuvering.
Mark Horsburgh / Getty Images
Teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup celebrate after the controversial race.
“He’s spitting chips on it, like I guess, but he’s just doing the team thing … helping Jamie (Whincup) get through as well,” van Gisbergen told the Supercars broadcast.
McLaughlin then redoubled his thoughts before declaring that it was all fair in love and war, which will ensure that even more eyes keep up with the next round in South Australia later this month.
“I would have liked to have a one-on-one battle with Jamie. In my opinion, that would have been amazing. I understand team play, I feel like it’s too early for those silly games,” McLaughlin said. .
The incident was not van Gisbergen’s first brush with controversy in the race.
He previously flipped Cameron Waters, destroying the championship contender’s career, but the incident was considered a racing incident because Nick Percat had allegedly caused a problem when he slowed down ahead of Waters.
McLaughlin and van Gisbergen have been in an ongoing battle for years that came to a head at Pukekohe in 2018 when van Gisbergen achieved a rare victory over the dominant McLaughlin.
After the race, van Gisbergen parked so close to the DJR Team Penske driver’s car that he couldn’t get out.
Mark Horsburgh / Getty Images
Shane van Gisbergen won both races on Sunday despite highly controversial driving.
Van Gisbergen claimed it was an accident before being forced to accept blame and apologize for his team’s unsportsmanlike action.
McLaughlin took his revenge with a crucial race win the next day that helped him claim the 2018 Supercars championship.
Tensions between Triple Eight and DJR Team Penske flared again last year at Bathurst when McLaughlin’s teammate Fabian Coulthard kept the field in a move that possibly helped McLaughlin get ‘the big run out’.
Coulthard was relegated to last for the incident.
Sunday’s events will only stoke the fire even more as McLaughlin and Whincup’s championship race looks decided at the season finale at Bathurst.
Many supercar fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure Sunday at van Gisbergen’s “poor sportsmanship” pass, while others claimed McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske deserved what they got because of Coulthard’s actions at Bathurst.
McLaughlin, who won the inaugural Townsville SuperSprint race on Saturday and finished second to van Gisbergen in race two, had a frustrating Sunday despite extending his lead in a bid for a third straight Supercars championship.
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Scott McLaughlin qualified 10th for the third race of the weekend after an incident with Garry Jacobson.
At the end of the weekend, McLaughlin, with 1834 points, leads the championship over Whincup (-143) with Chaz Mostert in a distant third (-444) and the unfortunate Waters (-465) with van Gisbergen in fifth place, 477 points behind McLaughlin. .
McLaughlin took victory in the round with the most points in all three races on the weekend.
His podium in race three was unlikely after qualifying tenth.
He was on target to start on the front row when backmarker Garry Jacobson got in his way at the last corner of qualifying on Sunday, costing him critical time.
McLaughlin had nowhere to go and made minor contact with the back of Jacobson’s car.
“This was normal on Garry Jacobson’s part,” said Supercars host and commentator Neil Crompton while reviewing the incident.
McLaughlin received an immediate apology from Jacobson, which he accepted, saying that the blame should lie with both Jacobson’s team and the driver.
“It was just one of those things,” McLaughlin told the Supercars broadcast.
“He said sorry, he apologized, I get it … I’m still mad, but it is what it is and we’ll fight from the tenth.”
To his credit, Jacobson took full responsibility and said he was gutted by the championship leader.
“I am disgusted with myself.
“I went straight to McLaughlin and apologized,” Jacobson told the Supercars broadcast.
He said it was a communication problem and thought he had more time to get out of the way of the Kiwi driver.
“In the end, all I can say is I’m sorry for Scott McLaughlin … it was my fault,” Jacobson said.
