Three victories in three races for Shane Van Gisbergen

Shane Van Gisbergen continues his domination of the V8 Supercars weekend in Melbourne. The Tekno Autosports driver won the third race at Albert Park in style, keeping the lead from lights to flag ahead of Fabian Coulthard’s Brad Jones Racing Holden.

Craig Lowndes made it three Holdens in the top three, but the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver was second earlier in the race before he made a mistake.

The field was behind the safety early in the race when Chaz Mostert was spun around by the HRT Commodore of Garth Tander. Dale Wood, in the Britek Holden, was unable to avoid the stationary Ford Performance Racing car of Mostert, resulting in a heavy impact between the two cars. The damage was substantial on both cars, meaning that both drivers will miss the fourth race.

As the safety car went back into the pits, Lowndes made an uncharacteristic mistake, allowing Coulthard to get past. Lowndes then had to defend from Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin mid-part of the race. The Holden driver managed to keep the Volvo driver at bay, with Lowndes claiming third and McLaughlin finishing fourth.

Garth Tander crossed the line in fifth ahead of the Nissan of Michael Caruso and reigning champion Jamie Whincup’s Triple Eight Holden in seventh. Mark Winterbottom made a strong charge from 14th on the grid to finish eighth in the race with his FPR Ford Falcon.

Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright had another tough race as he briefly was fifth, only to retire later with a stuck throttle.

The accumulated points from the first three races of the weekend determines the grid for the fourth and final race tomorrow, meaning that Van Gisbergen will start from pole position ahead of Coulthard, Lowndes, McLaughlin and Caruso.