It was double delight for Shane van Gisbergen as he added another victory and further enhanced his stake in the Repco Supercars Championship at Albert Park as support to the Australian Grand Prix.
It was a dominating victory for van Gisbergen although he was forced to work hard early, but once the pit stops were completed, he was unstoppable.
There was a Shell V-Power Racing front-row lockout for the penultimate event of the weekend for the Repco Supercars Championship, but positioned a row behind was van Gisbergen in what was an ominous spot of which to add another victory.
The Kiwi ace failed to make the best of starts and dropped position to David Reynolds off the line as many drivers left the road at Turn 1.
It continued to be a Shell V-Power Racing whitewash at the front, a mistake by Anton De Pasquale ended this, dropping him out of the lead as Will Davison and Reynolds took advantage to demote him to third.
The first of the leaders to pit was Davison leaving Reynolds in the lead and forcing De Pasquale to stay out an extra lap after he had flat spotted his tyre following his Turn 1 excursion.
Once De Pasquale pitted, van Gisbergen made his move by passing Reynolds at Turn 11 and remained out despite the Grove Racing Mustang peeling off to the pits.
This proved advantageous to van Gisbergen as although he emerged from the pits second in the corrected order, De Pasquale was close and challenged through the Turn 3-4 complex. However, the Shell V-Power Racing Mustang was run wide as De Pasquale also lost position to Reynolds.
On newer tyres, van Gisbergen was able to bridge leader Davison’s 4s gap to pass with ease and build a comfortable 4.2s margin of his own.
Davison was holding second, although Reynolds was closing and De Pasquale was running a lonely fourth ahead of Mobil 1 Optus Racing’s Chaz Mostert.
A 5.6s victory to van Gisbergen made it two for the day after his earlier triumph as Davison and Reynolds rounded out the podium.
De Pasquale, Mostert, Broc Feeney, Tim Slade, Cameron Waters, James Courtney and Garry Jacobson completed the top 10.
Scott Pye finished a lap down in his Team18 Holden ZB Commodore following an off-track excursion at Turns 1 and 2 on the opening lap.
Tomorrow’s final Repco Supercars Championship race is scheduled for 12pm AEST.