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Chaz Mostert’s engineer Adam De Borre admits that he is dejected after Shane van Gisbergen cruised to yet another victory in the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.
Van Gisbergen is now unbeaten in seven races dating back to last year’s Bathurst 1000, even having driven with a broken collarbone and broken ribs since the last event, and now leads the championship by over 150 points.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver might have dropped from pole to third in the opening corners of Race 6 at the Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint, but even then, there was soon a sense of inevitability about another victory for #97, and so it was that he prevailed by 4.7s over team-mate Jamie Whincup.
Mostert got home in fourth in the Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore, just over 10 seconds behind van Gisbergen after around 106km of racing, and remains third in the championship.
Asked if the situation was cause for feeling dejected, De Borre confirmed that is “Absolutely” the case.
“No one likes being beaten and we’re getting pantsed at the moment,” he added.
“So, we all have to work harder, and we’re trying to close that gap and put a car on track that’s quicker.
“It’s a challenge, the whole pit lane’s got the same challenge, even his team-mate’s got the challenge.
“So, we’ve got to do something different, do something smarter, be smarter, be better, and if we can, we will close that gap.”
Mostert qualified third for the opening race of the Symmons Plains weekend in a session during which the WAU crew changed front rotors and pads due to a vibration in Car #25.
De Borre advised that those brakes had been used again, but is therefore hopeful of a strong showing tomorrow.
“We’ve got a few key areas that we know we need to fix,” he said.
“We had the dramas with the brakes in qualifying and we had to use that set at some point, so we used it today.
“Hopefully, tomorrow, we’re back on point with our qualifying package and our brake package, and if we are, I think we can be at the front and have a better day.”
Mostert ran as high as third (effectively) in the 44-lap encounter but dropped two spots during the pit stops before passing Will Davison again on the race track.
“It wasn’t a bad day,” he said.
“We were probably a little bit disappointed. We were probably a little bit wounded in that race.
“In qualifying, we had a front set of brakes that just didn’t quite feel right but unfortunately we had to run them in that race just because you’re only allowed a certain amount [from the] allocation.
“I’m hoping tomorrow that we can be a little bit stronger than what we were today but definitely some work to do to try and catch those front guys.”
Qualifying for Race 7 commences tomorrow at 10:45 local time/AEST.
