Van Gisbergen: Title defence 'win or bin'

Shane van Gisbergen has lamented a "win or bin" title defence despite racing away to a big lead.

Van Gisbergen has won eight of 12 races in 2022, and leads Anton De Pasquale by 164 points.

On paper, the reasons behind the four races van Gisbergen failed to win are clear.

In Sydney, he qualified 21st, slid off the road and recovered to sixth.

At Albert Park, he was caught out by a red flag and qualified 23rd, and later raced to third.

Later that weekend, he suffered a puncture chasing eventual winner Chaz Mostert and finished 20th.

Last weekend, van Gisbergen qualified 11th for the first Sunday race after being impeded by Mark Winterbottom.

He managed to finish sixth after a late charge on fresh rubber, before winning race No. 8 of his title defence.

While pleased with the wins, van Gisbergen is frustrated by the missed opportunities.

"There’s still too many bad races," he said.

"It’s either win or bin, it feels like.

"Maybe I need to accept second or third sometimes, but winning races is a nice feeling too."

Eight wins from 12 starts is better than his 2021 campaign, when he won six of the first 12 races.

Unlike 2021, van Gisbergen has won at each of the first four rounds.

The next round at Winton is another bogey track of sorts for the Kiwi; van Gisbergen’s sole win came in 2017.

Having ended his Perth drought, van Gisbergen is expecting improvements on the driver and team side.

"Apart from our incident with Winterbottom during qualifying this morning, it would have been a great weekend for us," he said.

"The first qualifying session was really frustrating, but in the second qualifying session, we showed what we could really do.

"Although it was an awesome weekend, we still have some weaknesses.

"My race starts haven’t been great… I keep getting shockers.

"Our pit stops maybe aren’t quick enough to put the pressure on some of the other guys.

"Normally, it’s not a very strong track for myself, so it’s good to get a couple of wins here.”

The season will resume at Winton Motor Raceway on May 21-22.