The Kiwi pairing of Shane van Gisbergen and Earl Bamber have finished fifth overall in the 2018 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. The win went to Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards, the second time the pairing have won the Great Race.
The fastest car of the weekend had been the Erebus Racing’s David Reynolds/Luke Youlden but driver fatigue saw Lowndes catch and pass an ailing Reynolds who eventually handed the car back to his co-driver.
Van Gisbergen’s Red Bull Holden ran inside the top three through the first half of the race. However, a slow brake rotor change at the fourth pitstop dropped them to 16th. Co-driver Bamber carved his way back up to sixth in quick time, but further gains from there for van Gisbergen were limited.
“The race today started alright, we got into second and the car was nice, and I thought the track would come to the car and it sort of did but then it didn’t quite come to,” commented van Gisbergen. “The balance got better but the pace didn’t, so that was a shame. Earl (Bamber) did an awesome job, always passing people smoothly and he had good pace, but we were just too far back. At the end there was no strategy, it was just the same pits and we couldn’t go faster which is a shame. We’ll settle for fifth but I’m super proud of Triple Eight, Craig (Lowndes), Steve (Richards) and the team, that’s really cool.”
“We had a good car all day and we were running up front in the top two,” said Bamber. “And then we cycled back with a brake change and ended up in 16th. That was good fun because it was the first time that I had to push and take some risk in a Supercar and try to gain some spots. We then got back up to sixth, in a good position to make ground.
“However, we just stalled in that position and we didn’t have enough to go forward. It’s a mega result with getting in the top five and it’s a great result for Shane with the Championship points. It’s been an honour to come and drive for Red Bull Holden Racing Team this weekend and to drive for such a team in my first ever Bathurst as a rookie was amazing. So thank you for putting your trust in me, to Shane as well.
“It’s been a great weekend, especially to see Lowndesy (Craig Lowndes) next door win. So now let’s roll on to the Gold Coast and win some surf boards.”
Practice for the Vodafone Gold Coast 600 gets underway in 11 days time.
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Shane Van Gisbergen 3276
2. Scott McLaughlin 3257 -19
3. Jamie Whincup 2872 -404
4. Craig Lowndes 2787 -489
5. David Reynolds 2567 -709
6. Chaz Mostert 2288 -988
7. Fabian Coulthard 2282 -994
8. Rick Kelly 2242 -1034
9. Scott Pye 2182 -1094
10. Tim Slade 1970 -1306
TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Whincup/SVG) 6148
2. Shell V-Power Racing Team 5539 -609
3. Tickford Racing (Mostert/Winterbottom) 4066 -2082
4. Brad Jones Racing 3921 -2227
5. Erebus Motorsport 3886 -2262
6. Walkinshaw Andretti United 3778 -2370
7. Nissan Motorsport (Kelly/Heimgartner) 3636 -2512
8. Garry Rogers Motorsport 3035 -3113
9. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Lowndes) 2787 -3361
10. Nissan NISMO (Caruso/De Silvestro) 2582 -3566
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