Kiwis go one-two at Gold Coast 600
NOT even a 10-second penalty could stop Shane van Gisbergen winning yesterday’s race at the Gold Coast 600 as he extended his lead in the Supercars championship.
Van Gisbergen now has a 160-point lead over team-mate Jamie Whincup, who finished third and is keeping himself in the running for this year’s title.
Scott McLaughlin made it a Kiwi one-two in the race, while Fabian Coulthard suffered a horrific crash five laps from the end, when he was taken out at 265km/ h by Garth Tander, when looking good for fifth place.
Van Gisbergen’s car had been the quickest at Gold Coast in the build-up to the race and his codriver Alex Premat started on pole position.
But the No 97 car suffered a setback when Premat was slapped with a 10-second penalty for a safety car infringement procedure.
For most drivers that would have spelled the end of any chances of a win but not van Gisbergen.
When he got in the car he shot through the field, then not only took the lead but built up a big enough gap to pit, take the penalty and rejoin the race still in the lead.
‘‘It was a bit of a surprise with the penalty,’’ van Gisbergen said.
‘‘Alex did the wrong thing, made a mistake, but his pace when he got going again was really awesome, he was really pushing hard and had good car speed.
‘‘In that middle stint I was against co-drivers mainly so I had to go crazy and pass as many as I could.’’
For McLaughlin, it was pleasing to finish on the podium after a disappointing result at Bathurst a fortnight ago.
He was close to van Gisbergen at the end of the race, but didn’t have the pace to try an overtaking move.
‘‘As I came out of the pits, I didn’t realise I’d be so close to Shane and Jamie. I didn’t quite have the best run through the traffic like Shane did, so I had to get on with it.
‘‘The last few laps pushing was good for us. I knew Shane was saving and I was trying to save as much as I could, but it was too much time and their car across the distance was a lot better than ours, but I had enough for Jamie.’’
Coulthard may not be able to race today due to damage from the crash and a war of words ensued between him and Tander afterwards.
‘‘It was unnecessary,’’ Coulthard said, adding that Tander was wrong to push him from behind down the front straight.
‘‘You’ve got to go back a couple of steps and how did he get to that position,’’ he said.
‘‘He was into my rear bumper throughout the last corner and without him doing that and unloading me and taking the drive off my rear wheels there would be no way he would be in the position he is in.
‘‘So he can think what he likes but at the end of the day I expected a little bit more from him. He is an experienced driver and it’s a little disappointing.’’
But Tander has little sympathy for Coulthard.
‘‘He was just weaving side to side,’’ Tander said.
‘‘So I tried to pass him one side, he shut down that side, I went back to the other side and actually got overlap on him and he came across the front of me. ’’