Tasmania Supercars: Whincup snaps van Gisbergen's winning streak
Jamie Whincup snapped Shane van Gisbergen's seven-race winning streak with a well-crafted victory at Symmons Plains.
Race winner Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering
Edge Photographics
Pole-sitter Cam Waters led across the first stint, although it was never a comfortable lead. From the word go he had Whincup under his rear wing, while van Gisbergen joined the battle for the lead at the Lap 10 mark after making good early progress from sixth on the grid.
Waters opted for an early stop on Lap 13, Whincup almost following him into the lane before making a last-second decision to stay out and take over the lead.
He kept van Gisbergen at arm's length for the next six laps before serving his stop, re-emerging back behind Waters, who had benefited from the undercut.
The benefit was short lived, though, Tickford's ongoing tyre degradation issues leaving Waters as a sitting duck.
On Lap 26 Whincup got his nose under Waters at the hairpin, the pair knocking doors as they drag raced down the back straight before Whincup eased into the lead at Turn 6.
From there he just had to manage the gap back to van Gisbergen, Whincup successfully snapping his teammate's seven-race winning streak with a first victory since Townsville last season.
It also marked Whincup's 123rd career win and first with new race engineer Wes McDougall.
"It's a good feeling to get the win," said Whincup. "[Shane] has had a shocker, he's finished second.
"The car was great. I didn't quite get the start I would have liked, but we had slightly better tyre life than Cam. SVG was coming at the end but I just had enough to hang on."
Van Gisbergen has an action-packed run through to second, having dropped back to fourth on the road after taking a late stop on Lap 27.
That meant he had to get past Will Davison and Waters, van Gisbergen using the hairpin on both occasions to dive under his rivals.
The pass on Waters was particularly aggressive, van Gisbergen making a late dive before running Waters nice and high at the apex.
That opened the door for Davison to follow van Gisbergen through, before charging to his first podium since returning to Dick Johnson Racing.
Waters finished fifth ahead of impressive rookie Will Brown, while Chaz Mostert made decent progress from 10th on the grid to finish sixth.
Mark Winterbottom, David Reynolds, Scott Pye and Andre Heimgartner rounded out the Top 10.
Heimgartner was particularly lucky to get to the finish after getting caught up in a wild tangle at the hairpin on the first lap.
The big loser from the melee was Anton De Pasquale, who was nudged into a spin by Jack Le Brocq. Heimgartner then found himself on the outside of Le Brocq, copping a hit as Le Brocq was sent into a spin of his own.
There was another hair-raising moment in the early stages when Macauley Jones tipped James Courtney into a slide down the front straight, an out-of-control Courtney then collecting Jack Smith on the way into Turn 1.
Results:
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 88 | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | |
2 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 1.003 |
3 | 17 | Will Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 6.496 |
4 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Mustang GT | 11.905 |
5 | 9 | Will Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | 14.002 |
6 | 25 | Chaz Mostert | Holden Commodore ZB | 15.816 |
7 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom | Holden Commodore ZB | 15.973 |
8 | 26 | David Reynolds | Ford Mustang GT | 16.996 |
9 | 20 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 17.916 |
10 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Ford Mustang GT | 18.781 |
11 | 8 | Nicholas Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 19.257 |
12 | 3 | Timothy Slade | Ford Mustang GT | 19.458 |
13 | 11 | Anton de Pasquale | Ford Mustang GT | 22.255 |
14 | 14 | Todd Hazelwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 22.435 |
15 | 34 | Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 28.670 |
16 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 29.675 |
17 | 2 | Bryce Fullwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 30.966 |
18 | 35 | Zane Goddard | Holden Commodore ZB | 34.464 |
19 | 22 | Garry Jacobson | Holden Commodore ZB | 35.732 |
20 | 96 | Macauley Jones | Holden Commodore ZB | 45.653 |
21 | 5 | Jack Le Brocq | Ford Mustang GT | |
22 | 44 | James Courtney | Ford Mustang GT | |
19 | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore ZB | ||
4 | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Related video
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments