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Shane van Gisbergen admits he’s still in pain after completing opening practice at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint.
The Repco Supercars Championship leader has been under an injury cloud ever since breaking his collarbone in a mountain biking accident a fortnight ago.
Van Gisbergen has undergone regular treatment, including using a hyperbaric chamber to speed up his recovery.
His 2020 Bathurst 1000-winning co-driver Garth Tander had been placed on standby, but showed no signs of being needed during Practice 1.
Van Gisbergen made an immediate statement in Practice 1, jumping to the top of the timesheets early with a 1:08.5061s early in the piece.
That time would keep him at the top for the bulk of the session, until dropping to eighth amid a late flurry of flyers.
In total, van Gisbergen chalked up 14 laps in positive signs for his hopes of contesting the full round.
“I just, on the outlap, hit the Turn 2 kerb and it was either going to be good or not,” he said post-session, admitting he’s not certain the pain will be manageable all weekend.
“It’s painful but I can get around.
“It’s as I hoped, so I can drive and I’m not thinking about the pain.
“It’s hurting the ribs a bit but I’m driving with a clear head, which is good.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering physio Chris Brady also gave an update on the 31-year-old’s condition soon after he returned from his initial run.
“He just said he was sore, which is what we expected him to be, but the good news is he’s sore in the places we are OK with and he’s not sore in the places we would be worried about,” Brady said.
“We don’t want him to be sore at all anywhere near the bone but we’re really comfortable that he’s sore in all the muscles.
“He hasn’t moved for two weeks other than the various tests we’ve done on him so it’s as good as we could get right now.”
Supercars will return to the track for Practice 2 from 11:30 AEDT, with three-part qualifying and a 36-lap race to come later in the day.
