Whincup ends van Gisbergen’s winning streak

Holden’s Jamie Whincup ended Shane Van Gisbergen’s perfect start to the 2021 Supercars championship, pipping his teammate to victory in yesterday’s opening race at Tasmania.

The Red Bull Ampol Racing pair claimed their second one-two finish of the Symmons Plains weekend but this time it was Whincup coming home ahead of Saturday race winner Van Gisbergen.

It’s seven-time championship winner Whincup’s 123rd Supercars race win in what will be his final fulltime season.

The result ends van Gisbergen’s seven-race winning streak which included a perfect six-from-six at the start of 2021 campaign.

Having started from the third row of the grid, the 31-year-old New Zealander was happy with the outcome.

Ford’s Will Davison came home a distant third ahead of pole-sitter Cam Waters, who was unable to hold off his rivals in the final half of the 44-lap race as his Monster Energy Mustang struggled to bring its qualifying speed to race.

Van Gisbergen’s second-place means he will share the record for the best start to a season in Australian touring car history with six wins alongside Allan Moffat (1977) and Mark Skaife (1994). In the second race, Holden star Chaz Mostert claimed a wire-to-wire victory.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver got the jump on ex-teammate Waters at the start of the 44-lap race in Tasmania and steered clear of any danger to secure his first win since joining the team at the end of 2019.

Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale made the most of a late fadeout by Waters to claim second with teammate Davison coming home third.