Breaking news

Supercars

Van Gisbergen driving through collarbone pain

Shane van Gisbergen says his broken collarbone was painful but manageable during the first practice session at Sandown.

Andrew van Leeuwen

Edited: Mar 21, 2021, 10:35 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

The points leader broke his collarbone less than a fortnight ago while mountain biking and, following surgery, has been in a race against time to be fit for this weekend's three Sandown races.

The injury got its first proper workout during this morning's first half-hour practice session, allowing van Gisbergen to assess whether he'll be able to get through the weekend.

Pace wasn't an issue, van Gisbergen leading the way early and only slipping back to seventh despite not running new tyres.

And, while admitting it was uncomfortable, he says the pain wasn't bad enough to distract him from driving the car.

"On the out-lap I hit the Turn 2 kerb and knew it was either going to be good or not," he told Fox Sports.

"It was painful, but I can get around. It's as I hoped. I can drive and I'm not thinking about the pain. It's hurting the ribs a bit but I'm driving with a clear head."

He did, however, stop short at confirming he'll stay in the car all weekend: "I don't know," he said when pressed in a TV interview by Garth Tander, the driver on standby if van Gisbergen elects not to race.

Triple Eight physio Chris Brady painted a more positive picture during the session, explaining that van Gisbergen wasn't feeling pain in any areas that would raise concern.

“He just said he was sore, which is what we expected him to be, but the good news is he’s sore in the places we are okay with and he’s not sore in the places we would be worried about,” Brady said.

“We don’t want him to be sore at all anywhere near the bone but we’re really comfortable that he’s sore in all the muscles.

“He hasn’t moved for two weeks, other than the various tests we’ve done on him, so it’s as good as we could get right now.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Sandown Supercars: Whincup fastest in first practice

Next article Sandown Supercars: Waters pips Winterbottom in second practice

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far

Formula E

FE Formula E 13 min

2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 36 min

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Formula 1

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

How Qatar red flag helped Johann Zarco put Barcelona crash behind him

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

1 h

How Qatar red flag helped Johann Zarco put Barcelona crash behind him

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts