Shane van Gisbergen has once again proved his worth outside a Supercar, this time with a win alongside Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the first of two races at Sandown in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia.
In a wet and rainy affair in Melbourne, it was championship leader, and defending champion, Yasser Shahin who started on pole, closest contender Liam Talbot starting alongside in second.
Ibrahim was left starting in sixth, slightly out of place but quickly worked his way through the field in treacherous conditions, his progress helped by a spin for the pole-sitter Shahin on the opening lap.
Coming in for the pit stops around the race mid-stages, van Gisbergen took to the track with the lead and never looked back.
With 12 minutes to go, heavy rain causing a number of incidents brought about a safety car before the red flag was shown, the results standing at the current running order.
This gave van Gisbergen and Ibrahim the victory for Triple Eight Race Engineering, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Supercar veteran Garth Tander took second place for himself and Shahin in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II, whilst Fraser Ross and Talbot took home third, also in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II.
The Kiwi has also qualified fastest for tomorrows race, which begins at 3.35pm NZ time tomorrow and can be streamed live on motorsport.tv.
Banner Image: GT World Challenge Australia