Shane van Gisbergen believes the type of strategy which propelled him to victory in Race 10 at Wanneroo Raceway won’t be repeatable in today’s two daylight heats.
Van Gisbergen extended his Repco Supercars Championship lead to 157 points after waiting until Lap 32 to pit in order to give him a tyre advantage that would allow him to run down front-runners Cameron Waters and Anton De Pasquale in the closing stages.
Such a ploy was made possible by the low drop-off in lap times during his first stint on the Dunlop soft compound tyre amid cool temperatures under lights.
However, degradation is expected to be more of a factor today with racing occurring in the afternoon sun.
Van Gisbergen said he was bracing for “quite a lot” of difference in the degradation levels, which could corner the bulk of teams into running similar strategies to more or less break up the 46 laps evenly.
“We won’t be able to do what we did tonight, and I’m glad in some ways, but everyone will just do three tyres tomorrow,” said the Red Bull Ampol Racing #97 star.
“I think it will be quite hard to get through on just the side, but you definitely won’t be able to set mid-to-low 55s all tomorrow, it will be ‘[5]6s or worse.
“It will be tough tomorrow and I think you will see everyone run close to halfway.
“It will be a narrower pit window tomorrow I think.”
Supercars Championship action resumes this morning with Qualifying for Race 11 from 09:20 AWST/11:20 AEST.
Race 11 itself begins at 12:05 AWST/14:05 AEST, ahead of Race 12 at 15:45 AWST/17:45 AEST.
