Andre Heimgartner has brought home a season-best result of eighth position at the Perth SuperSprint today, but it is a bittersweet result for the Nissan pilot with a potential top five finish thwarted on the final lap.
Heimgartner started today’s 200km race on the second row of the grid after qualifying fourth fastest. Throughout the race he impressed within the top five, including a large portion which was spent in second place.
Following the final pit stops, Heimgartner was fourth on the road but tyre life soon became an issue with the 22-year-old forced to yield to Craig Lowndes and his fresher tyres with 10 laps to go.
From there, the Melbourne-based Kiwi looked like he could bring home fifth position, however contact received from Shane van Gisbergen on the last lap of the race saw the #7 Plus Fitness Altima pushed off the road for a very bumpy ride. He would recover to cross the line in eighth position.
“I don’t know whether we could have held off van Gisbergen for the rest of that final lap as he had better tyres than us and was very quick, but to lose not only that position but then two more after being bumped off the road is not a good feeling, especially after such a great race,” Heimgartner said.
“While that wasn’t the end to today that we wanted, if we look at the race overall, I am very happy.
“We qualified well this morning through each stage of the qualifying format, and we converted that practice and qualifying speed into a race set-up which saw us well and truly in the top five all race long.
“At the end of the day, it was a strong day for the #7 and especially after Saturday’s issues, we are very happy with what we were able to put together.”
Earlier in the weekend, Heimgartner showed promising speed by topping the field in the first practice on Friday and being seventh fastest in Saturday’s practice.
When the set-up didn’t translate to qualifying speed however, Heimgartner would start Saturday’s 120km race in 23rd. There he found himself on the receiving end of some starting push and shove, incurring damage which would hamper him for the rest of the day’s proceedings.
“We had some really strong practice pace on Friday in practice one and then on Saturday morning, however we just weren’t able to capitalise on that in Saturday’s qualifying,” Heimgartner explained.
“When we started so far back and then got caught up in some contact, we got stuck with some steering issues which made for a really long race.
“Looking at it I believe we had a race set-up in the car that would have performed well as it was similar to the set-up that we used for Sunday morning’s qualifying, but the damage we incurred just meant we couldn’t do anything with it.
“After such a difficult Saturday, it was very rewarding to see Sunday go a whole lot better for us. It might not have been perfect, but we made big strides today and really showed that we are capable of running up the front – I can’t wait to carry this momentum forward to Winton in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Heimgartner will next be on track with Nissan Motorsport and the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship at Winton Motor Raceway across May 18 – 20 for the Winton SuperSprint.
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