5 Dec 2011

Van Gisbergen just misses out on Championship podium finish

10:14 am on 5 December 2011

The New Zealand driver Shane van Gisbergen has been pipped for third place in the V8 Supercars Championship after Mark Winterbottom's victory in the season-ending race in Sydney.

Winterbottom took out the 250km race on Sunday to end his championship on a high and snatch third place in the overall standings from van Gisbergen who finished third in the final race of the year.

It capped a dominant end to the year for Winterbottom, who claimed the most points of any driver from the annual Bathurst 1000 endurance race onwards to come home with a very wet sail.

And the 30-year-old is hopeful the strong end to the season is just the beginning for his historically under-performing Ford Performance Racing (FPR) outfit.