Shane van Gisbergen’s winning streak has come to an end as he finished second to Triple Eight team-mate Jamie Whincup in Race 7 of the Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains.
Whincup grabbed the effective race lead from Cameron Waters with a pass down the back straight midway through the 44-lap encounter, and van Gisbergen made his way by the Tickford Racing entry a few laps later.
In doing so, he allowed Will Davison to move into an effective third and that was where the Dick Johnson Racing pilot would stay, with Waters home in fourth and Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown fifth.
The victory is Whincup’s first in 2021, and indeed the first for anyone other than van Gisbergen this year, with those two now separated by 145 points at the head of the championship.
Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) led the field into Turn 2 from pole position, ahead of Whincup (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore), Brown (#9 Ozland ZB Commodore), Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang), and van Gisbergen (#97 Shell V-Power Mustang).
Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) bagged it up when the lights went out and dropped from third on the grid to sixth, before he was unloaded by Jack Le Brocq (#5 Truck Assist Mustang) when they arrived at the Hairpin for the first time.
Le Brocq would be given a 15-second penalty, but not before he was turned into the fence by Andre Heimgartner (#7 Ned Mustang), and Jake Kostecki (#34 Unit ZB Commodore) fired into the weeds to avoid them, in the chaos which ensued.
Van Gisbergen nabbed fourth from Davison as the standing lap came to an end and, while the top five ran together initially, it soon became apparent that the championship leader was being held up by Brown.
Van Gisbergen made his move on Lap 9 as they ran up the back straight, at which time Whincup was around 1.7s up the road and still tailing Waters.
That remained the case until Tickford called Waters into the pits on Lap 13, with Brown following him down the lane as van Gisbergen closed in on Whincup.
Davison stopped a lap later and emerged ahead of Brown, while Whincup peeled off with a lead of almost 0.7s on van Gisbergen at the end of Lap 19.
Whincup rejoined the race track just behind Waters but grabbed the effective lead on Lap 25 when he showed the nose at the Hairpin and completed the pass at the other end of the back straight, with a bump or two along the way.
Van Gisbergen pressed on until Lap 27 and reportedly took another pair of used rear hoops, despite suggestions Triple Eight might change the working side due to a possible mark on a tyre.
He got out just behind Davison as the DJR driver stalked Waters, who had already lost almost two seconds relative to Whincup since the pass.
Van Gisbergen went under the #17 Mustang at the Hairpin on Lap 30 and forced it wide to ensure that he could make the move for an effective third position stick.
A lap later, he had a bigger lunge at Waters which took both very wide, and not only did #97 go past #6, so did Davison in #17.
Whincup was more than three seconds to the good at that point, and 2.7s when the compulsory pit stop cycle completed on Lap 33.
That margin continued to fall steadily but there was no major threat from behind, with #97 taking the chequered flag 1.0032s in arrears.
“Good feeling to get the win of course,” said Whincup, before quipping, “The bloke beside me has had a shocker, he’s come second.
“Car was great, didn’t quite get the start I would have liked and we had slightly better tyre life than Cam so was able to get past.
“Then SVG was coming at the end but just had enough to hang on.”
Davison was more than five seconds further back from the Triple Eight duo in third at the very end, ahead of Waters and Brown.
Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore) took sixth, and the five bonus points for the fastest lap, from Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore), David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang), Scott Pye (#20 DeWalt ZB Commodore), and Heimgartner.
Nick Percat (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore) climbed to 11th from 20th on the grid while De Pasquale ended up 13th.
The final race of the Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint is set to kick off at 16:25 local time/AEST.
Results: Race 7, Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint
| Pos | Num | Team/Sponsor | Driver | Car | Laps | Race time |
| 1 | 88 | Red Bull Ampol Racing Team | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 38:58.0841 |
| 2 | 97 | Red Bull Ampol Racing Team | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 38:59.0873 |
| 3 | 17 | Shell V-Power Racing Team | Will Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 44 | 39:04.5798 |
| 4 | 6 | Monster Energy Racing | Cameron Waters | Ford Mustang GT | 44 | 39:09.9892 |
| 5 | 9 | Erebus Motorsport | William Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:12.0861 |
| 6 | 25 | Mobil 1 Appliances Online | Chaz Mostert | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:13.9005 |
| 7 | 18 | IRWIN Racing | Mark Winterbottom | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:14.0568 |
| 8 | 26 | Penrite Racing | David Reynolds | Ford Mustang GT | 44 | 39:15.0804 |
| 9 | 20 | DEWALT Racing | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:15.9997 |
| 10 | 7 | NED Whisky Racing | Andre Heimgartner | Ford Mustang GT | 44 | 39:16.8651 |
| 11 | 8 | R&J Batteries | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:17.3415 |
| 12 | 3 | CoolDrive Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Mustang GT | 44 | 39:17.5425 |
| 13 | 11 | Shell V-Power Racing Team | Anton De Pasquale | Ford Mustang GT | 44 | 39:20.3392 |
| 14 | 14 | Scandia Racing | Todd Hazelwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:20.5195 |
| 15 | 34 | UNIT Racing | Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:26.7544 |
| 16 | 99 | Erebus Boost Mobile Racing | Brodie Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:27.7593 |
| 17 | 2 | Mobil 1 Middy’s Racing | Bryce Fullwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:29.0497 |
| 18 | 35 | Yellow Cover Racing | Zane Goddard | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:32.5485 |
| 19 | 22 | Team SYDNEY | Garry Jacobson | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:33.8159 |
| 20 | 96 | Coca-Cola Racing | Macauley Jones | Holden Commodore ZB | 44 | 39:43.7366 |
| 21 | 5 | Truck Assist Racing | Jack Le Brocq | Ford Mustang GT | 43 | 39:08.1215 |
| 22 | 44 | Boost Mobile Racing | James Courtney | Ford Mustang GT | 41 | 39:22.6659 |
| NC | 19 | Local Legends | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore ZB | 6 | 16:09.8652 |
| NC | 4 | SCT Motor Sports | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB | 1 | 1:03.0643 |
Fastest lap (bonus): Chaz Mostert 0:51.8897, Lap 20
Drivers’ championship
| Pos | Driver | Pts |
| 1 | Shane van Gisbergen | 797 |
| 2 | Jamie Whincup | 652 |
| 3 | Chaz Mostert | 595 |
| 4 | Cameron Waters | 583 |
| 5 | Mark Winterbottom | 539 |
| 6 | Will Davison | 537 |
| 7 | David Reynolds | 414 |
| 8 | Andre Heimgartner | 404 |
| 9 | Brodie Kostecki | 403 |
| 10 | William Brown | 390 |
| 11 | Nick Percat | 387 |
| 12 | Scott Pye | 386 |
| 13 | Anton De Pasquale | 370 |
| 14 | Jack Le Brocq | 360 |
| 15 | Todd Hazelwood | 357 |
| 16 | Bryce Fullwood | 343 |
| 17 | James Courtney | 324 |
| 18 | Jake Kostecki | 304 |
| 19 | Zane Goddard | 286 |
| 20 | Fabian Coulthard | 224 |
| 21 | Jack Smith | 222 |
| 22 | Tim Slade | 218 |
| 23 | Garry Jacobson | 199 |
| 24 | Macauley Jones | 196 |
Teams’ championship
| Pos | Car(s) | Team | Pts | ||
| 1 | 88 | 97 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | 1449 | |
| 2 | 2 | 25 | Walkinshaw Andretti United | 938 | |
| 3 | 18 | 20 | Team 18 | 925 | |
| 4 | 11 | 17 | 100 | Dick Johnson Racing | 907 |
| 5 | 6 | 44 | Tickford Racing | 907 | |
| 6 | 7 | 26 | Kelly Grove Racing | 818 | |
| 7 | 9 | 99 | Erebus Motorsport | 793 | |
| 8 | 8 | 14 | Brad Jones Racing | 744 | |
| 9 | 34 | 35 | Matt Stone Racing | 590 | |
| 10 | 19 | 22 | Team Sydney | 423 | |
| 11 | 4 | 96 | Brad Jones Racing | 418 | |
| 12 | 5 | Tickford Racing | 360 | ||
| 13 | 3 | Blanchard Racing Team | 218 | ||
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