Whincup holds out Van Gisbergen in Townsville

SHANE Van Gisbergen came second as Jamie Whincup led from start to finish in yesterday’s race in the Supercars Championship round in Townsville.

It was a largely uneventful race for the six-time series champion, but his Kiwi team-mate Van Gisbergen had an almighty battle to finish second.

Whincup started on pole, with Van Gisbergen also on the front row. Whincup took the lead from the off, while Van Gisbergen just about managed to hold off James Courtney in the first lap.

Further back it was a disastrous start for Scott McLaughlin, who had to come into the Garry Rogers Motorsport garage after a clash with another car, which effectively ended his chances of a good finish.

After 12 laps Whincup had a 0.7 second lead over Van Gisbergen and was already looking good for a victory in this race.

Soon after, the first of the cars jumped into the pits for the first of their mandatory fuelling stops. Van Gisbergen came in on lap 15.

But Whincup didn’t wait long for his stop and came out leading his team-mate by over 1sec.

By lap 25 everyone had done their first stop, with Whincup leading, followed by Van Gisbergen, Courtney and Chaz Mostert. On lap 47 Mostert began an epic battle with Van Gisbergen, overtaking each other in criss-cross manoeuvres, with the young Australian coming out on top, before the Kiwi passed him six laps later.

Whincup took the chequered flag with a 3.5sec lead over Van Gisbergen.

Further down the field Fabian Coulthard was eighth, Andre Heimgartner 15th, Chris Pither 20th and McLaughlin 24th.

Whincup extended his series lead on 1425 points, Van Gisbergen moved up to second on 1342 and McLaughlin dropped to fifth on 1264.