Triple Eight wins shortened Race 1 at Sandown

Water wherever you would see, this was how the Race 1 of the FANATEC GT World Challenge Australia at Sandown Raceway unfolded, with the No. 888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Shane van Gisbergen and Jeffri Ibrahim sliding less than the competition and taking the win in troublesome conditions.

Rain isn’t that uncommon of an occurrence at Sandown, with it getting so heavy that practice had to be suspended at some point. The Saturday had no water falling but still a bunch of standing water along the road, and while skating out of Turn 1, the No. 1 The Bend MPC Audi led the way over the No. 20 Gtechniq Audi, only for Liam Talbot to briefly go off and a corner later see Yasser Shahin spin in front of him, dropping down to sixth.

What usually is a fast circuit where you would throw caution through the window in normal conditions turned into a skating contest to see who would survive on track, as the No. 23 KFC MPC Audi went off track and the No. 1 barely missed the grass a lap later. With the wet track holding up pretty much everybody, Liam Talbot just had to keep the No. 20 in place to stay in the lead and keep Jeffri Ibrahim in the No. 888 Triple Eight Mercedes behind.

After nearly 20 minutes watching from the distance, Ibrahim decided to attack and outpaced Talbot for first place, and despite a slide to the side of the track, the lead was kept and the gap was stretching. Talbot also saw Shahin go back to the fight, moving to second when the traffic was in front of the leading pack.

The mad dash to the pit window saw Shahin stop in an awkward position to leave the No. 1 to Garth Tander, which cost the position gained on track over the No. 20, all while the No. 888 had a quick and flawless service. Tander recovered the place for the No. 1, but the rain got really hard, and if it wasn’t for a Safety Car call with 18 minutes to go, Shane van Gisbergen would be cool to push the No. 888 to the win with solid advantage.

With the No. 23 KFC MPC Audi stuck in the gravel and the rain only getting heavier, the race organization opted to call it a day with 13 minutes to go as there would be no minimal condition to have a safe race during the remaining time.

GTWC Australia - Sandown Race 1 results

Despite a spin sending the No. 101 Harrolds Mercedes nose first into the wall, it won the GT3 Am Cup, with the team’s No. 102 entry winning in the GT4 Cup.

PHOTO: Triple Eight Race Engineering/Mark Horsburgh