Defending Bathurst 1000 champions Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander were cruelly robbed of another podium finish after a tyre failure just seven laps from the finish at Mount Panorama.
The pair were running second, just four seconds adrift of eventual winners Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth, when the right-front tyre delaminated on the Commodore.
It left van Gisbergen with no option but to limp back to the pits for fresh rubber, dropping the Triple Eight car to an eventual 18th place finish.
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There was a moment of drama for Brodie Kostecki as he went to pass a slowing van Gisbergen around the outside, touching the wall across the top of the mountain, fortunately escaping without serious damage.
“This is the cruellest sport some days,” said Mark Skaife in commentary.
“It is so unfair.”
Neil Crompton added: “What a devastating experience.”
Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton said the team pushed hard all day.
“We didn’t have the quickest car,” he said.
“They had the quickest car so they deserved to win. We wanted to keep the pressure on, and we were prepared to keep the pressure on at the risk of that (tyre failing).
“You make your choices, we need to analyse why we weren’t the quickest car.
“Hats off to them, quickest car all weekend, amazing qualifying lap, really good race pace, recovering from the tyre issue.”
Fortunately the failure had no impact on the championship, with van Gisbergen having already wrapped up the 2021 title before the Bathurst 1000.
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