Van Gis extends lead
Shane van Gisbergen stretched his lead in the Supercars Championship by finishing second at yesterday’s Sandown 500.
The Kiwi driver teamed up with compatriot Earl Bamber in the endurance event, and put in a solid performance to cross the line 6.8 seconds behind the winning duo of Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell.
Van Gisbergen’s biggest rival for the title — fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin — could manage only fourth with co-driver Alex Premat. That saw van Gisbergen, on 3054 points, grow his lead from 19 to 55 points with four events left.
Having only qualified 11th, van Gisbergen and Bamber slowly picked their way through the field in their Red Bull Holden. Bamber spent most of his stint in the bottom half of the top 10 but made some vital inroads, before van Gisbergen drove them on to the podium.
Van Gisbergen credited Bamber’s performance as key to their strong result.
“Earl did a great job, from 11th up to the front and then some good strategy. It’s an amazing day.”
They never threatened Whincup and Dumbrell, however, with the pair taking their third Sandown victory, leading from start to finish in a dominant display.
“I couldn’t be happier. The car has been awesome all weekend, PD did a fantastic job, but it’s not over until it’s over,” Whincup said.
“We just kept our head down, kept concentrating, this race has gotten away from us a few times, but thankfully it was a nice and clean race.”
Whincup remains third in the standings but closed the gap slightly on van Gisbergen by 24 points to 338. Bathurst is next in three weeks.