MOTORSPORT: van Gisbergen closer to Supercars title

Following a typically bruising and hectic weekend on the Gold Coast the 2016 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship has resolved itself into a straight battle between Red Bull team-mates Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup.

Along with respective co-drivers Alex Premat and Paul Dumbrell, they split the wins in the two 300km races between them in their Holden Commodore VFs, van Gisbergen slightly extending his advantage from 139 to 148 points because he claimed a second on Sunday while Whincup was third on Saturday.

Six hundred points remain to be won over six races and two events, so the fight is far from over, but both drivers acknowledge the New Zealander's strong chance of winning his first Supercars championship 10 years after he debuted in the category as a 17-year old.

"It's pretty cool, I am in a good spot and it's the best opportunity I have had to get a championship," he said.

"There's still 600 points up for grabs, anything can happen, so I have to make sure I don't make any mistakes."

The other car to share the podium over the two days was the Wilson Security GRM Volvo of Scott McLaughlin and David Wall, the former's brilliant drives delivering his reliable co-driver the first two podiums of his career.

McLaughlin made the highlights reel with his smokey, locked up pass of Mark Winterbottom's Prodrive Falcon for third on Sunday.

"I slammed it down to first gear and managed to pull it up which I felt it was clean on my part," McLaughlin explained afterwards.

"Pretty ironic I was coming down the inside of some bloke after Bathurst but it was one of those things, I felt the move was on and I just had a go."

That sounds less cryptic when you understand McLaughlin made those comments sitting next to Whincup at the post-race press conference.

Whincup said similar things after his attempt at passing McLaughlin at Bathurst went haywire and the whole brouhaha ended up in the courts.

But while the Gold Coast event started with Whincup the focus of attention, by the time we got through Saturday's race there was new craziness to distract everyone.

Most notable was Saturday's epic front straight crash in which the DJR Team Penske Falcon of Fabian Coulthard and motoring.com.au's Luke Youlden ploughed into the concrete wall at 265km/h and was destroyed.

It was a touch in the left rear quarter from Garth Tander's Holden Racing Team Commodore as they fought for fifth place that unbalanced the Falcon and sent it spearing left into the concrete.

Thankfully Coulthard was okay, but only an all-night rebuild got the car to the grid on Sunday. A 15th place finish was a meritorious achievement.

Tander copped an immediate drive-through and a 10 grid spot penalty for Sunday's race. He and co-driver Warren Luff would eventually finish 11th on Sunday.

There were others in the wars; rising young star Jack Le Brocq and Erebus Motorsport's Shae Davies both went in hard at turn 11, while Karl Reindler ended a promising run for Team 18 when he tagged the front straight chicane concrete on Saturday.

Main driver Lee Holdsworth, who has spent time in a wheelchair this year after a serious accident that destroyed the team's car, was left on the sidelines yet again. Thankfully on Sunday the Preston Hire Commodore completed the race without incident to take seventh place.

Rising above the craziness, the Red Bulls were in a class of their own, exhibiting a Mercedes F1 level of superiority over the field. They were able to fly over the gnarly street circuit's kerbs and chicanes, land and then put the power down like no other cars on the grid.

The combined point scoring of its two drivers meant parent Triple Eight locked up its eighth teams' championship in nine years, elevating it clear of Dick Johnson Racing at the top of the pile.

Van Gisbergen and Premat's 1-2 weekend also ensured they won the Pirtek Enduro Cup, which is conducted across the three co-driver races. At Sandown and Bathurst they had finished a close second and when points leaders and Bathurst winners Will Davison and Jonathon Webb faltered on the Gold Coast they were irresistible.

The consolation for Davison is he is still in the fight for third in the drivers' championship, along with Craig Lowndes, McLaughlin and Winterbottom.

Van Gisbergen demonstrated awesome pace and Premat proved almost flawless in his driving across the PEC, the Frenchman's only blemish across the four races being a 10 second penalty for speeding behind the safety car on Saturday on the Gold Coast.

They overcame that setback with blazing lap times, van Gisbergen driving a key stint against the co-drivers to set up the win.

In fact, the way the strategies fell across the weekend, co-drivers started both races (apart from Winterbottom on Saturday) and did most laps in a lot of cars in the races. Nearly 200,000 fans came to the races across four days; how many of them wondered why the superstars were sitting in pitlane and the hired help were doing most of the work?

None of that concerns us from this point on as we are back to single driver racing. In fact, in New Zealand in two weekend's time it's really old school with four 100km sprints and no mandatory pit stops.

That means it's up to van Gisbergen – wildly talented and in rare form – and Whincup – the six-time champion who never relents and never gives up – to go one-on-one for the title.

If it's still alive after that then it's on to Sydney Olympic Park for a final showdown over two 250km races. Given that track offers similar challenges to the Gold Coast – kerbs, chicanes and concrete – expect the racing to be brutal, hopefully thrilling too.

V8 Supercars Championship points:
1. Shane van Gisbergen – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 2812
2. Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 2664
3. Craig Lowndes – TeamVortex – Holden Commodore VF – 2427
4. Scott McLaughlin – Wilson Security Racing GRM – Volvo S60 – 2351
5. Will Davison – Team Darrell Lea Stix – Holden Commodore VF - 2235

Declaration: Bruce Newton is a paid contributor to the official supercars.com.au website.

Pictures courtesy of RedBull/Facebook