Scott McLaughlin and Shane Van Gisbergen star in Melbourne

Scott McLaughlin and Shane Van Gisbergen played the star roles during the Melbourne Grand Prix race weekend for V8 Supercars.

Tekno Autosports driver Van Gisbergen started the weekend strong and looked set to take a record-breaking four victories after winning the first three in style.
“The boys have done a great job all weekend so to at least be on the podium would’ve been nice. But we still had a good week, just unfortunate that happened, but car’s really fast, so, confidence in that now,” said Van Gisbergen to v8supercars.com.

Van Gisbergen started from pole position in the final Melbourne race, which awarded double points, but was only able to keep the lead shortly before he started to slip down the field due to a broken roll bar and ultimately finished 14th.
“That’s why we were so slow. As I drove out the gate on the warm up lap warming up the tyres it wasn’t right. I tried to adjust, but went backwards straight away and I tried to stay out of everyone’s way,” said Van Gisbergen.

The double points in the final race meant that the Holden driver dropped from first to fifth in the weekend points standings. The spotlight was instead aimed at another Kiwi in the form of Volvo Polestar Racing driver McLaughlin.

The 20-year-old started the weekend in the top by qualifying third, a position he kept in the first race, finished fourth in the second race and fifth in the third.
“You have only got to look at the third race yesterday. There were five cars out there all incredibly close. I couldn’t do anything, Michael couldn’t do anything and Craig, Shane and Fabs (Fabian Coulthard) were out in front. That’s where you have to look at it,” said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin was fourth in the points standings heading to the final race from which he started fourth on the grid. He made his way past Van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard early on to score the first victory in Australia for Volvo since Jim Richard’s triple victory in the season finale of the 1999 Australian Super Touring Car Championship at Calder Park.
”We made a few changes overnight and the guys gave me a great car. I could control the race all the way and I am just so stoked,” said McLaughlin.

While not being a championship round, McLaughlin jumped from fourth in the Melbourne weekend points standings to first and secured the victory by ten points over Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Craig Lowndes.
”This is just unbelievable, something you never forget! The car was fantastic, an awesome day for everyone at GRM and Polestar,” said McLaughlin.