Van Gisbergen 'surprised' by strategy call

Race 1 winner Shane van Gisbergen admitted he was surprised to have been placed on a three-stop strategy.

Van Gisbergen won the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight opener despite making an extra stop than his rivals.

The reigning champion crossed the line 20 seconds to the good and scored career win No. 55.

Red Bull Ampol Racing opted for a three-stop strategy for van Gisbergen early in the race.

Once van Gisbergen made his third stop with 14 laps to go, he was six seconds behind Anton De Pasquale, who was then in second place.

De Pasquale and the balance of the field had committed to a two-stop strategy.

Van Gisbergen took the lead with 11 laps remaining, and kicked off his title defence with a victory.

However, the decision to shift to a three-stopper caught him off-guard.

“I thought we were doing a two-stopper,” he said.

“I was surprised we pitted that early.

"I knew a three-stop was an option, but I didn’t know it was going to be that much different.

"I didn’t really race anyone for the rest of the race; I just drove around. Pretty cool."

It marked a successful start to life for van Gisbergen’s new engineer Andrew Edwards, who has shifted from Brad Jones Racing.

However, van Gisbergen revealed Edwards thought he blew the race.

“After the race, he was angry, he said he didn’t do a good job,” the two-time champion said of Edwards.

“I said, ‘Mate, we won by 20 seconds, what’s the problem?'

“He’ll fit in well, he’s very self-critical and analytical of himself, which is a good thing.”

Van Gisbergen completed his first two stints on the Soft tyre, before running on the Super Soft for his penultimate stint.

He had much fresher Soft tyres for the run home, and wasn’t challenged by De Pasquale or Brown.

While adamant he had the pace to win on a two-stop strategy, van Gisbergen was surprised the three-stop proved so effective.

“With a three-stop, you have to pass cars,” he said.

“I thought we could beat everyone on a two-stop, because our car’s normally better in racing.

“I’m a little surprised, I’ll have to go back and analyse why we switched strategy.

“But it was obviously much quicker."

Cars will return to the track for ARMOR ALL Qualifying on Sunday at 11:05am AEDT. CLICK HERE to view the race schedule.

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