It was also the first for Holden, in a season so far that’s been dominated by Ford’s new Mustang, the Ford coupe winning the previous seven races.

While reigning champ Scott McLaughlin scored a triumphant one-two for the DJR Team Penske Ford team on Saturday, with team-mate Fabian Coulthard second, on Sunday van Gisbergen was relatively untroubled once the Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore driver won the start.

A solid weekend in Tasmania for van Gisbergen sees him rise to fourth in the points to restore him to championship contender status after a troubled start to the season for the New Zealander.

“We made a huge step forward with our car. It was good to bounce back after that shocker,” he said.

It was good to get one back. Fabian [Coulthard] kept getting me out of the pits and had a great battle with he and Scotty,” he said. “I am confident we will be better (at Phillip Island) and I am really looking forward to it. We will be right.”

Fourth for the flu-suffering McLaughlin was the first time he’s been off the podium so far in 2019.

“We weren’t that quick today, so we had to think about it,” McLaughlin said. “If you told me coming into this weekend we would lead by 100 points and one-two I would have been happy, so that’s a pretty good outcome all things considered.”

McLaughlin leads team-mate Coulthard in the championship with 770 points to the latter’s 646. Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver Jamie Whincup sits third on 610 points, six ahead of van Gisbergen.