Holden star Shane Van Gisbergen has blitzed the field to claim pole position for Saturday’s 250km Supercars race in Adelaide but his lap is under investigation.
The Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver clocked a lap of one minute and 19.8304 seconds in Saturday’s top 10 shootout, winning pole position by four-tenths of a second from Ford rival Scott McLaughlin.
But within seconds of crossing the line on the 3.22km street circuit, race control advised it was investigating whether Van Gisbergen had exceeded the track limits on his lap.
Footage of Van Gisbergen’s exiting turn seven showed his Commodore putting all four wheels over the yellow track limit line, a situation McLaughlin’s garage believes was breached the rules.
“The car went outside the track limits,” DJR Team Penske principal Ryan Story said.
“It’s just a bit like when you’re playing footy – if the ball goes out of bounds they throw it in. It’s pretty straightforward.”
If Van Gisbergen is deemed to have exceeded track limits, his lap time will be scrubbed and he’ll start the race from 10th, with McLaughlin taking pole position.
Red Bull Holden Racing Team owner Roland Dane thought the investigation was a waste of time.
“It sounds like the sore loser department to me,” Dane said about Story’s comments.
“If Shane gets a penalty for that, we might as well go home.”
Race control has announced it will hold a post-session investigation before announcing what, if any, punishment Van Gisbergen will face.