SVG sees off Davison to take 70th Supercars win

Shane van Gisbergen has claimed his second win of the day in Race 26 of the Supercars Championship at Sandown.

The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver held off a late charge from pole-sitter Will Davison while Broc Feeney completed the podium after passing Chaz Mostert in the closing laps.

Prior to the race start, Davison overshot his grid box at the end of the warm-up lap, though reversed behind the line before the green flag waved at the back of the grid.

It was an even start across the front row, the Shell V-Power Racing driver heading the field into the first corner with van Gisbergen in tow.

Jake Kostecki found himself turned around at Turn 3, a moment that drew in Todd Hazelwood, Chris Pither, and Macauley Jones.

All were able to get going, though Hazelwood headed to the lane where he dropped seven laps.

Out of Turn 4 on the second lap, Davison and van Gisbergen ran side-by-side, the latter bouncing over the run off at Turn 6 but ceding the fight momentarily.

The DJR driver held on into Dandenong Road, only to lose out as the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver had a run on corner exit.

Van Gisbergen made the move stick into the final complex, De Pasquale making contact with his team-mate and immediately heading into the lane.

Next time around, the race leading Red Bull had an sluggish exit at Turn 4, offering Davison a run he was ultimately unable to capitalise on.

The order ran van Gisbergen from Davison, who looked to have escaped issue despite his car smoking in the aftermath of the friendly fire incident, from Mostert, Cameron Waters, and Feeney.

After being involved in the opening lap melee, Pither took to the lane on Lap 6, the PremiAir squad applying a healthy amount of race tape to the front of his ZB Commodore.

Andre Heimgartner was among the first to take his compulsory stop, the Mustang driver slipping to 21st as a consequence.

Mostert pitted from third on Lap 9, the Mobil 1 Optus entry rejoining in clear track in 15th place, first on the road of those who’d stopped to that point.

At the head of the race, the pace remained hot with van Gisbergen soon setting a new fastest lap of the race at 1:08.7932s.

Having pitted, James Courtney and Nick Percat battled at Turn 3, leading both to bounce their way through the complex and, in the former’s case, straddling the exit kerb on the run to Turn 4.

The exchange left Percat’s car trailing smoke and its driver reporting a power steering issue, particularly when turning right.

On new tyres, Mostert was enjoying strong pace, lapping marginally faster than the leaders who did not immediately react.

Feeney was next of the front runners to take to the lane, doing so on Lap 15 and feeding out into 11th – behind Mostert, who’d made strong ground with the undercut.

Van Gisbergen pitted next time, seemingly to cover off the threat posed by the charging WAU driver.

He joined the track with Mostert close enough to cruise up to his rear bumper by the time they reached Turn 3.

He was never quite close enough to make a move, van Gisbergen holding on to what was the effective race lead.

In the lead on the road was Davison, who headed Waters by two seconds until the Monster Energy driver pitted on Lap 20.

After 23 laps, Davison finally took to the lane just as he caught traffic.

It was a strategic gamble from the squad, knowing it would concede track position but hoping the tyre advantage would afford an opportunity to retake the lead in the closing stages.

Davison emerged narrowly ahead of Mostert, though fended off the WAU driver, as van Gisbergen had, to maintain the position.

The pit cycle complete, the deficit to the race leader with 12 laps remained stood at 2.5s, the race a straight fight to the flag.

Once his tyres had come up, Davison began to eat away at the advantage ahead, reducing it to 2.2s with 10 laps remaining. He snipped another two tenths next time around.

Behind him, Mostert was coming under the attention of Waters, who showed the nose at Dandenong Road on Lap 29.

There was another look at Turn 1 soon after, the ZB Commodore driver opening the steering slightly to avoid contact while holding on to second place.

It was repeated a lap later, Feeney reeling the pair in as the battle began to heat up.

The pressure valve was released when Waters made a mistake at Dandenong Road, locking up and skating into the gravel to fall back to 10th as he rejoined.

With five laps remaining, van Gisbergen’s lead had reduced to 1.3s, Davison having reset the fastest lap as he pursued the championship leader.

Having withstood the pressure from Waters, Feeney was soon harassing Mostert for the final podium place.

Good drive out of the final corner saw the Triple Eight driver sneak up the inside in the run down to Turn 1 where he made the move stick with three laps remaining.

Just seven tenths separated Davison and van Gisbergen as they began the penultimate lap, the former’s progress appearing to stall at that distance.

They began the final lap still split by 0.7s, van Gisbergen holding on for his second win of the day by 0.4611s after 36 laps of racing.

Feeney claimed third, his second Supercars podium, while Mostert narrowly held off Winterbottom to maintain fourth.

Sixth place went to Tim Slade, who gained six places, with the 10 rounded out by Scott Pye, Thomas Randle, David Reynolds, and Waters.

Van Gisbergen now holds a 500 point advantage in the championship over Waters, with Davison third a further 19 in arrears.

The Supercars Championship heads next to Pukekohe for three races across September 9-11.

Results: Race 26, Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint