Shane van Gisbergen takes Melbourne opener

Shane van Gisbergen bounced back from an accident in the opening practice session of the weekend to secure victory in race one of the Supercars meeting at Albert Park.

The defending champion had caused one of two red flags in the session when he went off at turn seven and damaged his Triple Eight-run Camaro – albeit not the same extent as Tim Slade damaged his PremiAir Racing car when he went off at turn five.

Having missed the second session whilst his car was repaired, van Gisbergen had qualified in third place for the opening race behind Anton De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki but wasted little time in getting up to second when the lights went out.

Nipping ahead of Kostecki on the opening lap when he took advantage of the Erebus man being slightly delayed whilst making a bid for the lead, van Gisbergen then grabbed the lead at turn three.

Maintaining a handy lead at the front, van Gisbergen left it late to make his mandatory stop and although his stop wasn’t the best, he was able to rejoin in P1 ahead of Kostecki – who had managed to get ahead of De Pasquale shortly before the pair made their own stops.

From there, van Gisbergen took a second win of the season ahead of Kostecki, although De Pasquale’s hopes of a podium finish were ended when he lost time in the pits.

As a result, Will Brown came through to take third spot ahead of Broc Feeney and points leader Chaz Mostert, with De Pasquale dropping back to sixth.

Feeney also scored the bonus points for setting fastest lap.

Having been forced to start from the pit lane after his accident, Slade came through to 20th place.

Race two takes place on Friday, with van Gisbergen on pole after topping the second qualifying session.