SHANE van Gisbergen says he needs to take a calmer approach to Sunday’s action at the VALO Adelaide 500, following a disastrous opening race.
The 2022 Supercars champion-elect limped his wounded Red Bull Holden home 13 laps down in 20th place, having crashed into the Turn 11 tyre wall on lap 50 of 78.
Van Gisbergen had started the race 25th after an error in the crucial dying stages of qualifying but was still expected to be a major threat in the race.
That looked the case early as he carved through the field; into the top 10 by lap 11, fifth by lap 20 and into the lead by lap 26 (albeit assisted by those ahead pitting).
Van Gisbergen’s pace came despite a mechanical issue that meant his front anti-rollbar kept resetting itself to full soft.
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The Kiwi was well placed in the leading group as a complex fuel strategy equation played out during the middle stages of the race, only for two incidents to curtail his run.
Side-to-side contact with Chaz Mostert on a Safety Car restart resulted in the Red Bull Holden nudging the Turn 6 tyre barrier, before his own Turn 11 mistake a short time later.
“I was pushing hard all race and obviously made a few mistakes today,” van Gisbergen reflected.
“Right from the start of the race the front roll bar was broken and was constantly dropping and dropping.
“The car was still handling itself ok, but I was pushing hard and things just didn’t quite work out. Sometimes you have to have a go, and I was really pushing hard.
“Chaz and I came together at one point and I was worse off after the collision, but it is what it is.
“Later on, I made an error and just missed the turn, hit the marbles which were pretty bad out there and unfortunately, I hit the fence.
“We need a big reset overnight, I need to do better, be calmer and make sure the car is straight so we can do a better job tomorrow.”
Teammate Broc Feeney finished eighth despite also enduring a wild day, which he described as “probably one of my worst ever races.”
“So much stuff went wrong throughout the race – I put it into the fence twice and ran off the track a few times but somehow, we finished eighth,” he continued.
“It was the most out of control race I’ve ever been a part of.
“There were a lot of marbles just off the edge of the racing line, so if you were a tiny bit off-line or if you were trying to pass someone it was so easy to spear off.
“We had way too many mistakes, and it was really tough conditions to race in but one positive is that we have pace, so I have no doubt we’ll be more competitive tomorrow.
“I think I got lucky throughout the race. A lot of drivers had incidents which we managed to stay out of, but I was really frustrated with how I drove.
“We’ll come back swinging tomorrow.”
