Shane van Gisbergen completes Triple Eight pole sweep in Adelaide
An eighth pole for Shane van Gisbergen around the Adelaide city streets has given his Triple Eight team a sweep of the poles for the weekend in the opening Supercars round of 2020.
van Gisbergen was able to move up from fourth in qualifying to claim the top spot in the one lap blast, making use of his new Holden Commodore chassis to get into the best position possible for his first win of 2020.
Rolling on from the order set at the end of qualifying two, the pack ran out on track sequentially for the shootout, defining the order of the grid for today’s 78 lap race.
Just as he had done on Saturday, Anton de Pasquale was the first car to set a benchmark lap for Sunday’s shootout. A 1:20.5161 was down on his qualifying pace and nearly a second away from yesterday’s pole time.
Making his first shootout appearance for the year, Rick Kelly brought the Kelly Racing #15 Ford Mustang around for his lap, aggressively taking on the Senna chicane at the start of the lap. Unable to match de Pasquale in the first sectors, he went quickest at the end of the lap to move ahead of the Erebus car.
Improving on his effort on Saturday, Fabian Coulthard got through to the shootout in the DJR Team Penske #12 car and matched de Pasquale’s tour in the opening portion of the lap. A clean end to the lap gave him the quickest time so far with a 1:20.1322, faster than his qualifying lap to get in to the shootout.
Off the back of a strong debut with Walkinshaw Andretti United, Chaz Mostert launched the #25 Holden Commodore over the Senna Chicane to start his lap, all but matching Coulthard to the first sector. On four fresh tyres he tried to push as the lap neared completion, being rewarded with a lap just one-hundredth of a second quicker than the Kiwi.
On four used tyres for his shootout lap, Lee Holdsworth was able to get close to the top time in his Tickford Racing car through the first two sectors. A tidy run at the back end of the lap dropped him between Coulthard and Kelly, running near his fellow Mustang drivers.
Three-time Adelaide 500 event champion Shane van Gisbergen would up the Triple Eight #97 Commodore to start his lap, running on four fresh Dunlop tyres and smashing the first sector time set by de Pasquale. Using all the track and some through the notorious Turn 8, he got down to the 1:19’s with a 1:19.8101 to nab provisional pole.
Making his second shootout appearance in as many days, 23Red’s Will Davison wanted to capitalise on a fifth place finish on Saturday and eclipsed van Gisbergen’s time to sector one. He extended the margin in sector two but locked up into the final corner, just dropping between the Kiwi and Mostert for P2 provisionally.
Reigning Adelaide 500 champion and pole king of the past few years, Scott McLaughlin, went hard in the DJR Team Penske Mustang at the start of his shootout lap, faster than van Gisbergen in the first and second sector. He only just missed out on his countryman’s time by 0.03 of a second, not able to finish the lap as strong as it started.
Cam Waters was lucky to get away with a rough ride through the Senna Chicane as the Tickford Racing car bounced through the opening sequence of corners. While he gained time towards the end of the lap, the scrappy first sector meant he ended up between Mclaughlin and Mostert at the end of his lap.
Rolling out as the last car on circuit, Jamie Whincup went out to search for a second pole in a row and perfectly drove the Triple Eight #88 through the opening sector, matching his team-mate’s time. Dancing on the rear brakes into Turn 9, he couldn’t close the lap, only managing seventh place.
With the shootout complete, van Gisbergen will head up the pack from McLaughlin, Waters, Davison, Mostert, Coulthard, Whincup, Holdsworth, Kelly and de Pasquale for the start of today’s 250km race, starting at 1550 local time.
