Whincup win keeps pressure on van Gisbergen
Jamie Whincup vowed to fight Shane van Gisbergen to the bitter end for the Supercars championship after winning yesterday’s race at the Gold Coast 600.
Whincup has made a small dent in van Gisbergen’s lead, with the Kiwi holding a 148-point advantage going into the final two rounds of the season, in Pukekohe and Sydney.
It’s a tall order for Whincup to win his seventh title from here, but he says he won’t give up until it’s a mathematical impossibility.
‘‘We’ll do the best we can,’’ Whincup said last night, sitting next to his Red Bull Racing teammate van Gisbergen in the postrace press conference.
‘‘But we are still working together to make sure both cars are right up there.
‘‘We’ve had some bad luck in the last couple of rounds which has put us behind,’’ he said of himself and co-driver Paul Dumbrell.
‘‘It’s going to be a tall ask from here, but we’ll race hard until the last lap on Sunday at Homebush.
‘‘Fingers crossed we have a good New Zealand [round] and go hard right to the end.’’
Van Gisbergen, who shared the podium on Sunday with the thirdplaced Scott McLaughlin, said it’s going to be vital not to slip from here and come away from a race without any points.
As long as he stays close to Whincup in the remaining races, he should take the title.
‘‘I’m in a good spot and this is the best opportunity I’ve had to get a championship,’’ van Gisbergen said.
‘‘There are still 600 points up for grabs and anything can happen and I’ve got to make sure I don’t make any mistakes and there’s no double stacking at Pukekohe, because it’s short races.’’
It was this double stacking that robbed van Gisbergen of winning Sunday’s race at the Gold Coast, as when the safety car came out early on, following Richie Stanaway’s crash, and most of the cars dived into the pits, van Gisbergen’s car had to park behind Whincup’s while it refuelled.
Van Gisbergen drove superbly in the car when he got into it for the second half of the race and moved up from ninth place to second, but he never got close to challenging Whincup for the lead.
It was a similarly late charge from fellow Kiwi McLaughlin, who was 11th when he got into his Volvo, replacing David Wall.
Unlike most other cars, the Volvos didn’t pit for the safety cars and stayed out on the track, which meant McLaughlin was in the middle of the pack when he got into his car, but unlike others, didn’t have to conserve fuel.
‘‘Dave didn’t get the best start,’’ McLaughlin said.
‘‘So he fell back a couple of spots and unfortunately we lost track position on 34 (James Moffat, his team-mate), so it was going to be worse for us [to pit].
‘‘The boys didn’t reckon we were in our window.
‘‘I felt the strategy turned out to be good, Dave did a good job holding position to the end of his 34 laps and then as soon as I got in I was away.
‘‘The car was very fast too, it would have been nicer to have been closer to these guys (Whincup and van Gisbergen) and make a battle of it, but it was good to come through with third.’’