LACK OF QUALIFYING PACE HAMPERS SHANE VAN GISBERGEN

Shane van Gisbergen looking for qualifying pace – Photo: InSyde Media

Strong race pace has been hampered by poor qualifying pace for all three Triple Eight cars as Shane van Gisbergen converted his 17th and seventh qualifying positions into a pair of podium finishes at Winton.

The Kiwi sits 131 points behind his fellow countryman Scott McLaughlin, but admitted he was lucky to string back points after the championship leader fell back to eighth on the opening lap after a bad start.

“We clawed a few points back by being better at race craft and good strategy, but eventually Scotty is going to fix the starts and get off the line, then he is going to be hard to beat,” van Gisbergen said.

“Our focus needs to be now on Qualifying for the next few races, it hasn’t been good enough lately and if we can fix that we can go head-to-head.”

The RBHRT strategy ran longer in the middle sector of the race and on green tyres for the run home. He dispatched of McLaughlin and set about the task of catching Fabian Coulthard, which proved unsuccessful.

“We did a good strategy, we wanted to pit early I think but Jamie took the option so we kept pushing on like yesterday and passed most of the people with pure pace on track,” enthused the Kiwi.

“It was just awesome pushing at the end, I was trying to catch Fabian, but he started matching me as my tyres went away towards the end. It’s awesome to drive a car like that, but we need to make it work in Qualifying too.”

Despite falling short, van Gisbergen enjoyed pushing the car to its limits in his pursuit of Coulthard without the need to conserve.

“I was just pushing as hard as I can, I just love tracks like this, you go to Perth and you drive around at 20 per cent and it’s just crap, you drive to the tyre. Whereas you drive here, you just push the whole way and it’s so much more enjoyable, the car gets faster and faster as the fuel burns off, you really feel you’re actually driving it.”

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