SHANE van Gisbergen has indicated he feels Brodie Kostecki was hard done by in getting shown the bad sportsmanship flag during their exhilarating Perth SuperSprint battle.
Race 1 today went down to the wire as Kostecki desperately tried to hang on against van Gisbergen, who was capitalising on fresher tyres to hunt down the #99 Coca-Cola Camaro.
There was a dampener put on the exchange though when Kostecki was warned for blocking.
Soon after, van Gisbergen snuck by with the decisive pass at Turn 6 on the penultimate lap.
REPORT/RESULTS: Race 1 of the 2023 Perth SuperSprint
Both drivers exuded respect for the other post-race, albeit admitting confusion over what is and isn’t allowed.
“I love that stuff but obviously it’s a fine line with what’s allowed in our rules,” said van Gisbergen.
“Like he got a bad sportsmanship flag and I’m not allowed to bump him out of the way so it’s a fine line.
“I loved it but it’s obviously always a grey area in our rules.
“A one-on-one battle, you should be able to do what you want… I loved it but obviously they gave him a warning. You want to be allowed to race for the lead.”
Elaborating on his stance, van Gisbergen believes vigorous racing should be encouraged not deterred but noted he’d seek clarification on what is and isn’t allowed.
“Like if someone is blocking like that, am I allowed to move them?” said the three-time champion.
“In a normal situation, no, but maybe if he deserves it because he has got a bad sportsmanship.
“Surely if someone is blocking like that you’re allowed to move them out of the way a little bit; you should be able to, but I don’t know if they see it that way.
“You want to be able to defend your position,” he added.
“He (Kostecki) was doing nothing wrong with his defending. He was propping me up a bit but yeah, there should be some leeway for me to do it in the opposite way, I feel.”
Kostecki was relatively circumspect on the matter beyond voicing a mixture of confusion at the ruling and excitement about the action: “The last time I think I remember doing something like that was probably go-karts, so it was a long time ago.”
His team boss Barry Ryan was a little more opinionated when interviewed on the television broadcast.
“If they want good racing, that’s good racing,” said Ryan.
“There was only three laps to go. You can technically block with three laps to go, and that’s all he did.
“If it was 10 laps to go, Brodie would have been smart enough to consolidate second.
“But he’s racing for the win. We’re not racing for 10th, we’re racing for the win.
“Everyone puts up the white flag when Shane comes, but Brodie doesn’t. We proved that today and we’ll prove it again in the future. And beat him next time.”
He doubled down with: “When Shane drives up to the back of people and passes them because they roll out the white flag, you don’t want that. That’s crap.”
