Gisbergen heads Yas Marina practice

SBR driver Shane Van Gisbergen heads the practice times, after reigning champion Whincup’s time was disallowed. However, the pace of the new Team Vodafone Commodore’s indicates they’ll be contenders from the start.

SBR enjoyed successful practice all round, with Alex Davison top of the earlier sessions, and fourth at the end.

Jamie Whincup had set the fastest time in the No.1 Team Vodafone Holden Commodore, but was judged to have shortcut the circuit on his fastest lap of 1:58.099.

As a result, New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen officially tops the time sheets for Ford, in his Stone Brothers Racing Falcon.

Jamie said:
“The rules are the rules and I will make sure I don’t make the same mistake in qualifying,” he said diplomatically after earlier claiming he had been ‘shafted’.

“I must admit I am slightly surprised with where we are considering our test but the engineers have spent the past couple days going over data and the car responded very well to everything we did today.

“This track is going to offer great racing. It is awesome to drive around especially when the sun goes down.”

Shane Van Gisbergen, said of his first day running at the circuit:
“This track has a bit of everything, the first part of the circuit is quite open and has the corkscrew in there which really suited our car because we were the quickest in the first sector.

“At the end of the final session it cooled down so quickly when the sun went down, for one run there I had the sun in my eyes and then the next lap we were under lights.

“It’s awesome to have my name on the top of the timesheets on our first day in Abu Dhabi, the SP Tools Racing Falcon feels strong and I can’t wait for tomorrow’s race!”