Ambrose, McLaughlin weigh into SVG passes
Marcos Ambrose and Scott McLaughlin have defended Shane van Gisbergen’s “hard racing” manoeuvres.
Van Gisbergen muscled past Will Davison and Cam Waters en route to Race 3 victory in Tasmania.
The reigning champion bumped both Davison and Waters at the Turn 4 hairpin to set up the drag race towards Turn 6.
Waters remonstrated at the time, but he and Davison both defended the moves after the race.
Stewards reported no investigations into van Gisbergen after the race.
Ambrose, who is part of this weekend’s broadcast, said Ambrose is "breaking new ground" with his driving style.
"He made the pass, he put his car in position," Ambrose said.
"The other drivers he was passing, they didn’t like it, but they couldn’t do anything about it once he’s made that move.
"He’s just breaking new ground on these passes, the way he’s going about it; it’s quite exceptional, to be honest.
"I don’t know what the officials are going to say about it, whether they’re going to say ‘not again’, but I loved it.
"I thought it was just really hard racing, it was fair racing eventually... everyone finished the race.
"It was just hard, tough driving."
Van Gisbergen equalled McLaughlin's tally of 56 Supercar race wins with his Saturday victory.
IndyCar points leader McLaughlin, long time an adversary of van Gisbergen, said the #97’s rivals must be willing to defend their line.
"Take Shane’s line away instead," McLaughlin tweeted.
"Don’t just leave the door open then get mad when he jumps in the gap at the hairpin.
"Bump is fair game. Even without bump he will have track position for T6. Gotta stop the opportunity."
Van Gisbergen will carry a 17-point lead over Anton De Pasquale into Sunday’s races.
Cars will return to the track on Sunday for dual qualifying sessions from 10:35am AEDT. CLICK HERE to purchase your tickets.
Every session of the event will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506 and streamed on Kayo.
The Seven Network will broadcast highlights on Saturday and Sunday.
