Key Facts:

• Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen of Red Bull Racing Australia has gone back to back at Albert Park in yesterday’s Cotes Hire V8 Supercar Challenge.

• Triple Eight Racing has put two men on the podium in Race 1 and three in Race 2.

• Champion Mark Winterbottom faces a massive push from the back of the field after a race 1 shunt

• ‘Elbows out’ racing produces usual casualties.

Race 1

Shane van Gisbergen took the top step of the podium ahead of charging teammate Jamie Whincup in the first race at the Albert Park circuit. Van Gisbergen’s win is his first winning for new outfit Red Bull Racing Australia, and the team’s first 1-2 of the year.

A late race push saw Chaz Mostert of Supercheap Auto Racing nab third place ahead of Fabian Coulthard of team Dick Johnson Racing Team Penske.

The race ran eleven laps to in a time certain finish after extensive safety car laps were required to retrieve Todd Kelly with an engine failure on the front straight.

Jason Bright also was forced to retire after contact with Scott Pye caused extensive damage to the #8 Team BOC car.

Notably, Mark Winterbottom finished the race 21st after being turned around by Fabian Coulthard in controversial circumstances in the first lap.

The remainder of the top ten was completed by Pye in fifth, Garth Tander, Craig Lowndes, James Courtney, Scott McLaughlin and Cam Waters.

Race 2

Shane van Gisbergen took out race 2 of a mixed-weather Albert Park Challenge, although this time ahead of his Triple Eight stablemate Craig Lowndes of Team Vortex. Jamie Whincup completed the Triple Eight lockout of the podium in a momentous show of might from the 2015 team’s champion.

Lowndes pushed from his seventh place start from his race 1 efforts to slip past Whincup on the dying laps of the race; meanwhile, Race 1 podium finisher Chaz Mostert outbraked himself on Turn 1 and finished fifth behind Fabian Coulthard.

Elsewhere in the field, James Moffat ended up in the garage and did not finish after on-track contact broke the steering arm on the #34 Wilson Security Volvo. Andre Heimgartner also did not finish.

After good pace in Race 1 to finish fifth, Scott Pye locked a brake and ceded twelve spots to finish seventeenth.

On the other hand, Mark Winterbottom made up 9 spots from a Race 1 incident to finish twelfth for Race 3.

Featured Image courtesy of V8 Supercars Twitter.



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