Van Gisbergen wins Albert Park opener
Supercars Championship Results, An early overtake on pole-sitter Anton De Pasquale has helped Shane van Gisbergen win the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint opener. Van Gisbergen began third behind De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki, and made the move for the lead on lap 3.From there, van Gisbergen managed the race by way of the stops to take his second victory of the 2023 season.
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The #97 Purple Bull Ampol Racing driver has now crossed the road first in all three races this 12 months, however was disqualified from Race 1 in Newcastle.
Coca-Cola Chevrolet driver Kostecki led house teammate Will Brown, with Broc Feeney making it a Chevrolet top-four sweep.
Feeney additionally took house the 5 bonus factors for setting the quickest lap of the race.
Kostecki had handed Shell V-Energy Racing Staff Ford driver De Pasquale previous to the stops, with the latter delayed by a gradual pit cease.
Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) retained the collection lead, albeit by a decreased margin of 31 factors over Kostecki after ending fifth.
Van Gisbergen praised his staff over the consequence, having crashed the automobile in Apply 1.
“Because of my staff, Purple Bull Ampol Racing… after what I did to the automobile this morning, tried to write down the factor off,” stated van Gisbergen, who’s 106 factors from the collection lead.
“To repair it it up like they did, then two good qualis and a race win, I’m stoked.”
Earlier than De Pasquale led the sphere into Flip 1, the monitor was declared moist, which nullified the requirement to make use of each tyre compounds.
A racy Kostecki tried to stress De Pasquale right into a mistake, however solely inspired van Gisbergen to take second place by way of Flip 5.
Van Gisbergen shortly caught De Pasquale and simply made the move for the lead stick at Flip 3 on lap 3.
De Pasquale saved a watching temporary, however fell into the clutches of Kostecki, who staved off a problem from Cam Waters (#6 Monster Mustang).
Waters dropped two positions to Mostert and Brown after being frolicked to dry by Kostecki on the flip-flop.
On lap 15, De Pasquale once more proved no barrier for a driver behind as Kostecki eased previous at Flip 11.
De Pasquale and Brown had been first of the lead group to cease on the finish of lap 17.
A gradual cease by the Shell V-Energy crew delayed De Pasquale, and ruined his podium hopes.
The likes of van Gisbergen, Kostecki, Mostert, Waters all stopped on the finish of the penultimate lap.
Van Gisbergen additionally suffered a gradual cease, and misplaced his complete margin to Kostecki, who was pressured to defend from Brown on rejoin.
Nevertheless, with one lap remaining, Kostecki was unable to make an impression on the reigning champion, who gained by 0.3910s.
De Pasquale got here house sixth forward of Waters, with Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Help Camaro), James Courtney (#5 Snowy Rivers Caravans Mustang) and Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Camaro) rounded out the highest 10.
Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Camaro) was the massive mover, vaulting from twenty fourth to eleventh within the 19-lapper.
Tim Slade got here house twentieth after ranging from pit lane, having missed qualifying because of repairs to his #23 Nulon Camaro.
Automobiles will return to the monitor for the 15-lap Race 3 at 2:55pm native time on Friday.
