Shane van Gisbergen puts in drive of the year, taking win after qualifying 17th

A broken, battered Shane van Gisbergen has won the first of three races in this weekend’s Sandown SuperSprint after qualifying 17th on the grid, making use of a Triple Eight strategy master stroke to take home 100 points.

The championship leader headed in to the day with a broken left collarbone after breaking it the weekend after clean-sweeping the season opening Mount Panorama 500,, question marks surrounding whether he could even make the grid today thanks to the injury.

Despite having to fight up the order in traffic, a late pit stop for the Triple Eight car put him on fresh rubber for the fight to the flag, becoming the new Supercars record holder of the lowest grid position to win a sprint race.

The run to Turn 1 ended up being a four-car battle as the front row starters in polesitter Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters struggled to get off the line, behind them Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom got much better runs, making it a four-wide battle to the first turn.

Waters prevailed, taking the lead for Tickford Racing as Winterbottom forced the issue to remain second, jumping the Team 18 car up two spots as Whincup’s Triple Eight car held off the Walkinshaw Andretti United machine of Mostert for third.

The first safety car soon made an appearance at the start of lap three after Mostert’s team-mate Bryce Fullwood found himself in the Turn 4 tyre barrier, being escorted off the road by the Team Sydney #22 of Garry Jacobson, needing to be pulled out and recovered.

Racing resumed on lap seven, Waters leading the pack to the green flag. Shortly after the pit window opened, Mostert coming in first to take rear tyres on lap nine in the hope of getting an undercut on Whincup.

Anton de Pasquale in fifth followed suit on the next lap, aiming for a clear track to get out of the gaggle which had started to form in the positions behind the leaders. He emerged only just behind Mostert who was starting to put in fastest sectors thanks to the clear air, soon setting the fastest lap of the race to that point.

After qualifying a lowly 17th place, championship leader Shane van Gisbergen dragged his #97 Triple Eight entry up to fifth by the halfway mark, not yet having taking his pit stop but still showing the Holden Commodore had pace to burn in his quest to reduce the damage to his points lead.

Still yet to take their pit stops, Waters was having a hard time keeping Winterbottom at bay with Whincup under the #18 car’s bumper as well. They entered the pits line astern and exited with Whincup jumping Winterbottom but Mostert was the big winner, ending up three seconds clear of Waters as the three cars entered the lane.

de Pasquale was able to jump up between Whincup and Winterbottom on the road as van Gisbergen took the race lead, not yet having stopped but showing good speed out front. Winterbottom was able to get by de Pasquale down the back straight after a small bump on the exit of Turn 4, easily getting by on the run to Turn 6.

van Gisbergen finally came in from the race lead on lap 25, taking on rear tyres and emerging on track behind de Pasquale but on fresher rubber, putting him in good stead for the remaining laps.

Out front in the battle for the lead, Waters started to close the gap on Mostert with ten laps to go, 11 laps the difference between their Dunlop rubber as Waters continued to drag Whincup with him to close in on the WAU car in the lead.

Waters started to falter in his chase of Mostert, leaving himself vulnerable to Whincup behind who was starting to harass the back of the Tickford car which also allowed the leader to get an air gap as the lap count ticked down.

van Gisbergen’s attack from the back continued, getting up to fourth place after passing de Pasquale and Winterbottom in relatively quick succession. The battle between the top three allowed van Gisbergen to get ever closer to the podium battle, closing lap by lap on team-mate Whincup.

The battle for the lead resulted in Waters getting to first after a poor run for Mostert on the straight, Whincup getting past Mostert but the pair held each other up which let van Gisbergen through to second, setting his sights on the Tickford car with only just over two laps to go.

With better tyre quality, van Gisbergen was able to take the lead into Turn 1 on the final lap, clearing Waters to lead the Tickford driver and team-mate Whincup home to the win. Winterbottom had to settle for fourth with de Pasquale edging out Mostert in the run to the line for fifth place.

A quiet race for Brad Jones Racing’s Nick Percat resulted in a seventh place, ahead of Kelly Grove Racing’s Andre Heimgartner and the Tickford duo of James Courtney and Jack Le Brocq.