» Supercars: Whincup wins Race 29 to claim Sandown 500 pole

Jamie Whincup has claimed pole position for Sunday’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500 by winning a dramatic primary drivers sprint race – the second 60-kilometre race of the day – and taken over the lead of the Pirtek Enduro Cup.

The Red Bull Holden Racing driver avoided a chaotic collision that ended his teammate Shane van Gisbergen’s race before it had begun.

The rain lashed down on Sandown Raceway just before the start, with the field evenly split between starting on the Dunlop Slick or Wet tyres.

Starting on the wet tyres, Whincup had a perfect start off the line similar to that of his co-driver Craig Lowndes in the earlier co-driver sprint race to claim the lead.

As the field negotiated, contact between Erebus Motorsport’s Anton de Pasquale and van Gisbergen sent them both spinning off-track at Turn 1. The drama ensued when Scott McLaughlin and van Gisbergen pushed down the inside in the battle for second heading into Turn 1 and as van Gisbergen locked up, he slid into the side of de Pasquale as he turned for the apex.

De Pasquale and Van Gisbergen continued, the latter’s Holden Commodore sustained terminal damage, forcing the Kiwi to retire the car.

As a result of the incident, Driving Standards Advisor Craig Baird issued de Pasquale with a drive-through penalty, relegating the youngster from fifteenth place to the back of the field. It was a penalty that few, including van Gisbergen, felt was justified.

Van Gisbergen took full responsibility for the incident which later led to Baird admitting that he and the stewards had made a mistake handing de Pasquale a penalty.

“I was gutted mate, I stuffed this up royally,” van Gisbergen said after retiring his car, which will him start Sunday’s Sandown 500 feature race from last place.

“I’ve just heard they gave Anton a drive penalty. [The collision] was 100% on me, clear as day, I blocked Scotty. I feel so bad for those guys [Erebus Motorsport], they were on for a good result and I’m sorry for ruining that. I don’t know what they are doing giving him a penalty.”

Meanwhile out in front Whincup pushed ahead, extending his lead to Andre Heimgartner (Kelly Racing) by over seven seconds at the halfway point of the 20-lap race. Heimgartner would go on to hold second place to the chequered flag, securing a career-best finish and Kelly Racing’s second podium finish of the season as it gets set to farewell the Nissan Altima.

Making a charge at the business end of the race was de Pasquale’s teammate David Reynolds, who had passed the Tickford Racing Mustang of Lee Holdsworth for fourth at the beginning of the second lap, and was closing on championship leader McLaughlin as the laps counted down.

McLaughlin was struggling with over-pressured and overheating tyres, and in the final laps he fell victim to Reynolds on Lap 17, with Will Davison (23Red Racing) also pushing his way past.

McLaughlin’s teammate Fabian Coulthard sat dutifully in sixth, playing a rear-gunner role against a fast-closing Holdsworth to help McLaughlin maximise his championship points haul. With van Gisbergen failing to finish, McLaughlin extended his Drivers’ Championship lead to 500 points. With 250 points up for grabs in Sunday’s race and a further 300 points on offer at the season-ending Newcastle 500 round in a fortnight’s time, McLaughlin can secure back-to-back titles by simply finishing tomorrow’s race.

Reynolds came to within 2.3 seconds of Heimgartner at the flag, but had to settle for third place to atone for the penalty handed down to teammate de Pasquale.

The eleven drivers who started on slick tyres didn’t net a profit, all finishing behind the thirteen cars who opted for wet tyres at the start of the race.

Among those who did profit from a wet tyre strategy was Brodie Kostecki (Kostecki Brothers Racing), who climbed thirteen positions to a superb eighth after starting from 21st on the grid.

Chaz Mostert (Tickford Racing) was another who benefited from the wet tyre call. He charged through the field to finish ninth and made up 16 places after starting from the back of the grid due to co-driver James Moffat’s unfortunate end to Race 28. The Supercheap Auto Mustang was ahead of James Courtney (Wilkinshaw Andretti Racing) in tenth.

Sunday’s 161-lap feature race begins at 13:25 local time (GMT +11) with a 20-minute warm up from 10:00.

2019 Australian Supercars Championship Penrite Oils Sandown 500 – Race 29 Final Classification (20 laps)
Pos	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Holden Racing	25:47.279
2.	Andre Heimgartner	Plus Fitness Racing	+ 7.380
3.	David Reynolds	Penrite Racing	+ 9.634
4.	Will Davison	Milwaukee Racing	+ 9.732
5.	Scott McLaughlin	Shell V-Power Racing Team	+ 14.118
6.	Fabian Coulthard	Shell V-Power Racing Team	+ 14.227
7.	Lee Holdsworth	The Bottle-O Racing	+ 14.906
8.	Brodie Kostecki	Boost Mobile Kostecki Brothers	+ 15528
9.	Chaz Mostert	Supercheap Auto Racing	+ 15.640
10.	James Courtney	Mobil 1 Racing	+ 20.030
11.	Todd Hazelwood	Bigmate Racing	+ 25.815
12.	Simona de Silvestro	Team Harvey Norman	+ 29.445
13.	Anton de Pasquale	Penrite Racing	+ 52.046
14.	Cameron Waters	Monster Energy Racing Team	+ 1:06.346
15.	Mark Winterbottom	Irwin Racing	+ 1:12.870
16.	James Golding	Boost Mobile Racing	+ 1:13.242
17.	Rick Kelly	Castrol Racing	1 lap behind
18.	Nick Percat	Fujitsu Racing	1 lap behind
19.	Richie Stanaway	Boost Mobile Racing	1 lap behind
20.	Tim Slade	Freightliner Racing	1 lap behind
21.	Macauley Jones	Team CoolDrive	1 lap behind
22.	Garry Jacobson	RABBLE.club Racing	1 lap behind
23.	Scott Pye	Mobil 1 Racing	1 lap behind
24.	Jack Le Brocq	Truck Assist TEKNO Racing	1 lap behind
	Not Classified	Team	Reason
DNF.	Shane van Gisbergen	Red Bull Holden Racing	Collision