Davison hamstrung by early stop

Will Davison believes an earlier stop left him vulnerable to attack from behind in Race 8.

Davison finished second in Race 8 behind Shane van Gisbergen, but held off a charging David Reynolds.

It was a marked improvement on his Race 7 effort, with Davison tagged into the gravel by Cam Waters.

Davison led the race through the stops, but was overtaken by van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen had tyres three laps Davison’s junior, with Reynolds also stopping after the #17.

Davison had a 3.8s lead over Reynolds and van Gisbergen after the stops, but didn’t have enough to hold off the #97.

It marked Davison's 10th runner-up finish since his last victory in 2016.

"We ideally wouldn’t have stopped when we did,” he said.

'I did all I could to try to keep my speed up'

"I think we were just reacting to maybe Dave pitting and we didn’t want the undercut at that stage.

"I knew it meant I was going to be managing the tyres having a three-lap deficit to these guys.

"You can only drive the car straight when you have your pace.”

Van Gisbergen still had to clear Davison in his charge to victory, and made a robust move at Turn 5.

From there, the points leader bolted away and crossed the line by nearly six seconds.

"The car was a jet today,” van Gisbergen said.

"Our pace wasn’t so much there with the soft tyres, but we were so quick on the hard tyres.

"I’ve never had such good pace, so that’s very cool.

The Race 8 top three

"The track is really cool to race on as well, and there’s some fun places to pass… up the front it’s really good racing.

"I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow."

For Davison, who will start on pole for Sunday’s race, van Gisbergen was simply too fast on younger tyres.

“Obviously, I tried to fight Shane for a couple of corners and then I saw Dave coming as well on fresher tyres,” he said.

“Ultimately I’m time trialling to get home as quick as I can and I wasn’t going to be able to hold Shane off.

"I didn’t want Dave to get involved in the party as well. I did all I could to try to keep my speed up.

"The car is exceptional in qualifying and we know that often we can’t replicate that in race trim."

The Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 will conclude with Race 9 on Sunday.