Van Gisbergen crash ends opening Albert Park practice

A high-speed crash for Shane van Gisbergen brought opening practice for the Repco Supercars Championship to an early end.

The 30-minute session was not restarted after the Kiwi found the wall with 10 minutes remaining.

Mark Winterbottom ended up fastest but it was crashes for van Gisbergen and Tim Slade that created the headlines as the Gen3 cars tackled the track for the first time.

Van Gisbergen dropped the left-rear wheel of his Triple Eight Camaro into the grass through the Turn 8 sweeper, triggering a wild spin.

The Camaro rotated twice and tagged the left-side concrete with its left-rear at the end of its second spin, which knocked off its rear wing.

Speaking directly after the incident, Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup said the incident wasn’t as bad as he’d first feared.

“He came on the radio and said he’d had a big crash, but I expected a lot worse than actually what it was,” said Whincup.

“But hey, the guys are here to push hard and find the limits … we’ll repair the car and get back out for the next one. No stress this end.”

Adding to the drain on Triple Eight’s spare parts supply was an early crash for Tim Slade in the customer PremiAir Racing entry.

Slade had just gone second in the order behind van Gisbergen at the 10-minute mark when he lost control at Turn 5 and hit the barrier.

“It’s just massively frustrating,” said Slade.

“I think we’re all, you know, a bit gunshy with these cars for the first time here at this circuit.

“It felt relatively good but I wasn’t pushing; I hadn’t gone flat through any of the fast stuff and I’d actually stuffed up a couple of corners before and was short-shifting one corner.

“I was going to come into the pits, short-shifted the next corner and next thing I knew it the rear had gone.

“It was gone from the entry and just completely disconnected, and into the wall. Like I said, extremely frustrating and sorry for everyone in the team.”

A range of other drivers had spins during the session as the high-speed Albert Park layout proved challenging with the new low-downforce Gen3 cars for the first time.

Winterbottom’s fastest time of 1:49.9679s was over three seconds slower than the best set in opening Albert Park practice last year.

The red flags however played a part in that with drivers prevented from undertaking a final run.

Anton De Pasquale ended up second quickest from van Gisbergen, Cam Waters, David Reynolds and Will Davison.

A second practice session will take place ahead of two qualifying hitouts and the opening race this afternoon.

RESULTS: Practice 1, Beaurepaires Melbourne 400