[ad_1]
Shane van Gisbergen claimed victory in an entertaining second race at the Repco The Bend SuperSprint, but it wasn’t all good news for Red Bull HRT.
A slow pit stop due to a spike problem destroyed Jamie Whincup’s hopes of bouncing back from his qualifying effort in eleventh place.
The seven-time champion finished 17th and, with McLaughlin third behind van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner, the Shell Ford driver now leads the championship by 201 points.
Van Gisbergen took the lead of the race from the start, circling the outside at Turn 1 from pole winner McLaughlin, who took a light blow from teammate Fabian Coulthard, who started fast.
Chaz Mostert, fourth-placed, started the pit stops on lap five, beating McLaughlin when the Mustang No. 17 entered the pits a lap later.
Meanwhile, Van Gisbergen continued until lap 12, carefully monitoring his tires after the Holden team’s problems on Saturday.
He returned to the track just behind Mostert and McLaughlin, pushing the Shell car sideways at Turn 4 on his outlap.
A corner later he passed McLaughlin, before taking Mostert’s effective lead into Turn 1 the next time.
Heimgartner pitted with Mostert on lap five but, despite his aging tires, he pounced on Mostert and McLaughlin to take second place in a two-for-one dive at Turn 6.
Van Gisbergen made the gap with Heimgartner in the closing laps to win by 1.1462s with McLaughlin trailing Kelly Mustang in third.
Mostert paid the price for his aggressive strategy, tearing down the order quickly after losing the lead and finally finishing 11th.
Cameron Waters and Nick Percat placed fourth and fifth with four laps to go but, despite pitting mid-race, they also had tire problems and fell to eighth and ninth at the end.
The recipients were Fabian Coulthard, Anton De Pasquale, Rick Kelly and David Reynolds, who ranked fourth through seventh.
Saturday’s runner-up Jack Le Brocq edged Mostert at the flag, with Todd Hazelwood and Scott Pye also just yards behind.
The result marked the first time in the 60-year history of the championship that Kiwi drivers have swept the top four and represented a strong comeback for van Gisbergen.
“What a change from yesterday, we had no tires and we kept filling them with blisters,” said the 2016 champion.
“I took care of them at first, taking it easy and then the car came to life. I went out [of the pitstop] in battle, it was really cool. “
Heimgartner was also happy that his tires reached the finish line, adding: “I’m very happy with that. I had a great opportunity and luckily the tires held up.
“In the laps, few laps were quite normal, you could feel the tires moving away at 10 laps.”
McLaughlin admitted that he had taken a conservative approach in the first turn of the race, but enjoyed the battle with Mostert and Heimgartner later in the race.
“Shane on the race line could brake much deeper, I probably gave it a little bit there, but today it was a general theme.
“Obviously we knew that Jamie was back a bit, so it was all about getting some points. It was a good battle with Chaz and Andre, it was incredibly fun.
“I had no idea Andre was there. I focused on Chaz and then I saw a white car inside and it was like ‘far away. It was a good play; that’s why we’re going to run. “
The third and final race of the Repco The Bend SuperSprint will begin at 2:25 pm local time.
