It’s been a weekend of good progress for Shane van Gisbergen, who qualified in seventh for the Top 10 Shootout on his final qualifying lap on Friday, joining teammate Broc Feeney who progressed in fifth.
Despite the strong showing in qualifying, van Gisbergen admits there’s still more to give, saying, “I had another pretty disappointing day, but as always, I have to thank my team for doing an incredible job with my car again, but it’s been tough out there,” in a release shared by Red Bull Ampol Racing following Friday’s action.
“The #88 guys are doing a cracking job, and we’re working really well together to make sure both cars are competitive before we get to Sunday.
“At the end of the day, the car is still straight, we’re working through our program, and our excitement is building to Sunday.”
His co-driver, Richie Stanaway, has impressed so far, despite limited track time, and will be amoung the first in action with Saturday afternoon’s co-driver practice session.
“The main objective for today was getting into the shootout, so that’s a box ticked,” said Stanaway. “I’m looking forward to the co-driver session in the morning because today was a light day for me.
“I think we have some good car speed, so we have to keep working on that and see how we end up on Sunday. I’m comfortable in the car, so we just have to keep moving forward from where we are, but overall, I think we’re in a pretty good spot.”
Team Principal Jamie Whincup, who is also partnering with Feeney for the race, admitted he was unsure of how the Triple Eight Camaros would hold up on race pace but was pleased with the progress being made.
“Overall, both of our cars are in the ten, so that’s fantastic,” said Whincup. “Of course, you want to be faster, but today’s job was to get both cars in the ten, and we did that. Broc was solid all day, and SVG did a great job on the last lap. He wasn’t happy with the car but he dug deep and got us into the ten, so full respect to him.
“We’ll now work on making the cars quicker. In terms of race pace, we’re not sure on what it will be – I don’t think anyone knows just yet. We’ve got some work to do, but I’m happy we’re in the ten.”
Supercars return to action with Practice 5 for co-drivers at 12.00 pm (NZ time), with the weekend’s final practice at 3.00 pm for all drivers. Tomorrow’s Bathurst 1000 begins at 1.15 pm.
Quotes & Header Image: Supplied
