Van Gisbergen wins Supercars Race 13 in Darwin

Shane van Gisbergen has taken an effective lights-to-flag victory in Race 13 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver qualified second but got the jump on pole-sitter Will Davison at the start and those two would remain positions, compulsory pit stop cycle aside, for the remainder of the 38-lap encounter at Hidden Valley Raceway.

The battle for the final step on the podium, on the other hand, was only resolved in the final four laps when Jamie Whincup made a pass on Chaz Mostert which decided who of those two sits second in the championship for at least the next handful of hours.

Mostert ended up fourth and Mark Winterbottom fifth, while a pit stop mishap played a big part Anton De Pasquale’s result of sixth.

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For van Gisbergen, the result still does not completely wipe out the disappointment of his own costly pit stop drama, while leading, on the afternoon prior.

“It was awesome, got another good start which was great and Red Bull Ampol Racing, our car was awesome,” he said.

“We just needed to get things right today; pit stop was great and just managed the race at the end. Awesome. But it hasn’t made up for yesterday yet and we’ve still got this arvo to go.”

He added, “We move on with things quick. We analysed last night what happened and put procedures in place to make sure it doesn’t happen today, and a fallback plan if it does, and it didn’t.”

Back at the start of Race 13, van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore) made a slightly better secondary launch than Davison and was able to cover the #17 Shell V-Power Mustang on the run to the first corner.

Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore) and Whincup (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore) both went deep on the outside at Turn 1, going three-wide with van Gisbergen.

However, the former got loose and that delayed both he and Whincup, meaning they exited the corner behind Dick Johnson Racing team-mates Davison and Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang), respectively.

Behind, Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore) settled into sixth one he wrested that position from Will Brown (#9 Ozland Group Solutions ZB Commodore).

The rest of the top 10 towards the end of Lap 1 was Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) in eighth, from Nick Percat (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore) and Jack Le Brocq (#5 Truck Assist Mustang).

Van Gisbergen led by more than a full second after six laps, and more than two seconds after 10 laps.

Mostert and Brown, among others, pitted on Lap 9, before De Pasquale peeled off from third, at a 2.9s deficit to the lead, on Lap 10.

However, De Pasquale would be held up when the button reportedly fell out of the rattle gun which was being used to change the right-rear, and he was passed by Mostert as he rejoined the race track.

With fresh rears, Mostert reset the fastest lap, which had been held by van Gisbergen, on Lap 11 and again on Lap 12.

Davison pitted from almost 2.5s behind van Gisbergen on Lap 12 and was followed into the lane by Winterbottom, with Mostert splitting them on exit to effectively take third position off #18.

Van Gisbergen made his compulsory pit stop at the end of Lap 14 and still had almost three seconds on Davison when he popped back out.

However, that margin fell over the laps which followed, as van Gisbergen reportedly complained of some sort of noise coming from Car #97, and Triple Eight Race Engineering got another tyre ready.

Whincup and Percat were officially first and second when they pitted on Lap 20 and the former was able to get out between Mostert and Winterbottom, meaning #88 was up to an effective fourth position.

When Scott Pye (#20 DeWalt ZB Commodore) took service on Lap 27, the cycle was done.

Van Gisbergen led at that point by 1.3s over Davison, who had shaken Mostert after coming under pressure from the Race 12 winner for a number of laps.

Mostert instead had to worry about the presence of Whincup in his own mirrors, with fifth onwards being Winterbottom, De Pasquale, Waters, Brown, James Courtney (#44 Boost Mobile Mustang), and Percat.

Whincup showed the nose at the Turn 6 hairpin on Lap 34 but it was not until the next lap that the move got done.

Even then, it took several corners, with the seven-time champion going very deep at Turn 1 and only making third position his own for sure at Turn 5.

Van Gisbergen won by an official margin of 1.5327s, with Davison just over five seconds up on Whincup at the chequered flag.

Mostert grabbed the five bonus points for the fastest lap and is thus still only three points behind Whincup in the championship, but the latter is now 207 points adrift of his team-mate.

Fifth onwards in Race 13 was Winterbottom, De Pasquale, Waters, Brown, Percat, and Courtney.

Race 14, the weekend finale, is set to get underway at 15:25 local time/15:55 AEST.

Results: Race 13, Merlin Darwin Triple Crown

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Laps	Race time
1	97	Red Bull Ampol Racing Team	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:32.7437
2	17	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	38	43:34.2764
3	88	Red Bull Ampol Racing Team	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:39.4230
4	25	Mobil 1 Appliances Online	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:41.7860
5	18	IRWIN Racing	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:42.2763
6	11	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	38	43:42.5542
7	6	Monster Energy Racing	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	38	43:45.0865
8	9	Erebus Motorsport	William Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:49.3608
9	8	R&J Batteries	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:49.8887
10	44	Boost Mobile Racing	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	38	43:54.4247
11	5	Truck Assist Racing	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	38	43:55.1448
12	2	Mobil 1 Middy’s Racing	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:57.7387
13	20	DEWALT Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	38	43:58.2502
14	14	Pizza Hut	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	38	44:01.2509
15	99	Erebus Boost Mobile Racing	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	38	44:02.4255
16	19	Local Legends	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	38	44:02.8519
17	7	NED Whisky Racing	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	38	44:03.1392
18	26	Penrite Racing	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	38	44:03.6520
19	3	CoolDrive Racing	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	38	44:04.1197
20	96	Coca-Cola Racing	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	38	44:10.3675
21	35	Yellow Cover Racing	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	38	44:13.3630
22	4	SCT Logistics	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	38	44:21.6144
23	27	Walkinshaw Andretti United	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	38	44:28.1991
24	34	UNIT Racing	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	37	44:06.9442
25	55	Castrol Racing	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	31	44:38.9127
NC	22	Team SYDNEY	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	18	36:34.6219

Fastest lap (bonus): Chaz Mostert 1:06.9171, Lap 12

Drivers’ championship

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Shane van Gisbergen	1261
2	Jamie Whincup	1054
3	Chaz Mostert	1051
4	Cameron Waters	1004
5	Will Davison	995
6	Mark Winterbottom	797
7	Nick Percat	759
8	Andre Heimgartner	722
9	Anton De Pasquale	716
10	Brodie Kostecki	715
11	William Brown	684
12	James Courtney	670
13	Scott Pye	652
14	Bryce Fullwood	621
15	David Reynolds	612
16	Jack Le Brocq	594
17	Todd Hazelwood	553
18	Jake Kostecki	528
19	Zane Goddard	508
20	Tim Slade	506
21	Fabian Coulthard	372
22	Jack Smith	356
23	Macauley Jones	348
24	Garry Jacobson	319
25	Thomas Randle	212
26	Kurt Kostecki	186

Teams’ championship

Pos	Car(s)			Team	Pts
1	88	97		Triple Eight Race Engineering	2315
2	11	17	100	Dick Johnson Racing	1711
3	6	44		Tickford Racing	1674
4	2	25		Walkinshaw Andretti United	1672
5	18	20		Team 18	1449
6	9	99		Erebus Motorsport	1399
7	7	26		Kelly Grove Racing	1334
8	8	14		Brad Jones Racing	1226
9	34	35		Matt Stone Racing	1036
10	4	96		Brad Jones Racing	704
11	19	22		Team Sydney	691
12	5			Tickford Racing	594
13	3			Blanchard Racing Team	506
14	55			Tickford Racing	212
15	27			Walkinshaw Andretti United	186