Motorsport: Shane van Gisbergen extends Supercars lead

Shane van Gisbergen finished second in race three. Photo / Getty

Shane van Gisbergen has further extended his lead atop the Supercars Championship leaderboard, with two podium finishes from three races in Townsville this weekend.

The Kiwi, who came into the event with 10 wins from 16 races this season, already held a comfortable lead ahead of the pack, but extended that with a win in the first race today and a second-place finish in the second of the day, after finishing sixth in Saturday's race.

The final race of the round came down to a duel between van Gisbergen and Australian Cam Waters, with Waters holding a slim advantage over his counterpart inside the final laps.

While there were moments when van Gisbergen looked to sneak past him, Waters remained calm in the lead and drove without error down the home stretch, seeing the Kiwi off and closing out the race.

It looked like a different story might unfold early in the race, when van Gisbergen took the lead just five laps in, before a safety car made its way onto the track due to a crash. Van Gisbergen pitted when the safety car was deployed, taking on three new tyres before rejoining the race.

It proved to be to the advantage of Waters, who regained the lead once the safety car released the field.

"It was awesome fun," van Gisbergen said after the race. "What a great battle. He put it all in the right spots and down the straight I was giving him the thumbs-up. I really enjoyed it. I would have loved to have won; was a little bit unlucky with the safety car, but that's the way it goes.

"When you race a guy like Cam, you know he's going to give you room and you do the same. There's a lot of good guys in this category and a few who aren't, so I was pretty stoked to be racing him and stoked for those guys to win a race. We'll try again at the next one."

Van Gisbergen leads teammate Jamie Whincup by 276 points in the championship, with 12 races remaining, with Waters a further 136 points back in third.