Shane van Gisbergen has enjoyed a solid start to the Beaurepaires Tasmania Supersprint claiming his sixth win of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.
Starting on pole, van Gisbergen continued his brilliant 2021 form, converting his front row start to victory over Triple Eight Racing teammate Jamie Whincup and Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton DePasquale.
Despite grabbing his sixth straight win, it didn’t come easy for van Gisbergen after he had a slow start to the race, dropping to third within just two corners as a result of a a quick Cameron Waters and Whincup off the line.
However it didn’t take long for him to regain the lead, passing Waters just 10 laps later thanks to his relentless pressure and after gaining top spot, the championship leader quickly broke away to a handy buffer of around five seconds.
Following the mandatory pit stops, van Gisbergen eventually made it back to the front of the field and comfortably crossed the chequered flag over his teammate.
“It was a bad start and then Jamie pulled a nice move and got me, but did some big bombs at the end of the straight and got them back. It was fun racing at the start,” van Gisbergen said.
“We then tried to build a gap so we could manage it, however burnt up our rears which puts us in a spot tomorrow but our car is awesome. It’s really cool to be a part of it.
“Cam was really quick at the start, but then he dropped off. Our car was looking after its tyres, I was able to push hard and still hang in there. In the end we had good speed too so I am looking forward to tomorrow.”
While Whincup finished almost five seconds behind van Gisbergen, it was an easy one-two for Red Bull Racing duo, with Whincup finishing almost five seconds ahead of De Pasquale.
De Pasquale’s first podium for the year proved quite impressive after he started the race in P7 and ended up as one of the biggest movers in the top 10, just edging out Chaz Mostert by half a second.
Rounding out the top five and only seven tenths behind Mostert was Will Davison, the Victorian veteran capping a good outing for DJR and beating Waters who had a difficult second half of the race.
Other notable results saw Brodie Kostecki make up five positions to finish in 10th, while Todd Hazelwood marked his 100th Supercars start with P14 – climbing up 10 places having started from the back of the grid.
The action continues tomorrow with two more races, the first being at 1:35pm and the second at 4:25pm AEST.