SVG ponders gamble to catch De Pasquale
Series leader Shane van Gisbergen may “give away” tyre life strength in order to close the gap to Anton De Pasquale in Sydney.
Van Gisbergen extended his series lead over Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate Jamie Whincup with second in Race 20.
The points leader started sixth but ended the first lap in third after a wild opening few corners of the race.
Van Gisbergen was roughly three seconds behind second placed Will Brown for the balance of the first stint.
However, van Gisbergen reeled in the Erebus Motorsport rookie and passed him on the pit straight towards the race halfway mark.
The #97 Commodore took on working side tyres in its lap 19 stop, and van Gisbergen quickly accounted for Nick Percat for effective second.
However, De Pasquale’s Shell V-Power Mustang proved a cut above under lights, van Gisbergen 5.2s from the win.
"We managed to get P3 in qualifying, but we lacked a little bit of pace,” the Kiwi said.
"Qualifying is very close within the group of cars we’re amongst, but obviously Anton is doing a really good job in that area.
"Overall, my car feels good, but we just have to find a bit more pace.
"I had a decent start in the race and made some good moves and decisions, and I also managed to get some cool passes which was a lot of fun.
"Again, we have good pace compared to the guys around us, and we have excellent tyre life, but we just need that little bit of speed to be up the front.
"Maybe we can give away some tyre life to gain a bit more speed, but at the end of the day, everything seems pretty good.”
With Whincup ninth, van Gisbergen will take an extended 312-point lead into Sunday, which will feature two more 32-lap sprints.
"It was a pretty disappointing day for me today,” Whincup said.
"We didn’t have the pace in qualifying, so we were sitting in the middle of the pack in eighth position, but that was our true speed.
"We got a good start in the race but then I got touched up at turn two. I think Slade got into the back of me and I went back to P10 or P11 I think.
“Then I managed to grab a few positions back but that’s all we could do.
"We need to have a good look at all the data tonight with the engineers and try to make some changes for tomorrow’s back-to-back races."
Cars will return to Sydney Motorsport Park for Race 21 ARMOR ALL Qualifying at 10:30am AEDT on Sunday.
