Shane van Gisbergen says a yellow flag which may not have been heeded by his rivals cost him his final flying lap in qualifying at the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver ended up a relatively lowly ninth in Qualifying for Race 10 of the Repco Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains, having not improved on a 0:51.3293s during his first run in Part 3 of the knockout session.
Van Gisbergen says he backed off when Cameron Waters ran long at Brambles Hairpin and triggered a yellow flag, while his rivals up the road, including front row qualifier Jack Le Brocq, may not have.
“Cam went off, unfortunately, so I didn’t get to do my lap, which is a shame,” said the 2022 champion.
As he then watched a replay, van Gisbergen commented, “So, there’s four guys there under yellow going quicker, but anyway…”
He added, “I backed off straight away, thinking it was done, and then we’ve dropped.
“But anyway, it is what it is. I’m sure the officials will look at it.”
At this stage, it is not conclusive from broadcast vision as to whether the marshal started waving the yellow flag before the likes of Le Brocq had transited the area.
UPDATE: Officials clear Le Brocq over yellow flag incident.
Officials have already issued one sanction over Qualifying for Race 10, hitting Will Davison with a four-position grid penalty for impeding.
Davison was moving slowly around Turn 2 when van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mate Broc Feeney arrived on the scene and barely missed the #17 Mustang as he took to the grass.
The Dick Johnson Racing driver had qualified 16th but is now set to start 20th this afternoon.
Race start is scheduled for 15:50 local time/AEST, with 42 laps on the cards.
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