Van Gisbergen overcoming jet lag

Shane van Gisbergen is still feeling the effects of jet lag following his Le Mans debut.

Van Gisbergen paced Practice 2 at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown on Friday.

Only this week, van Gisbergen arrived back in Australia after spending two weeks in Europe.

The 33-year-old made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut last weekend with Riley Motorsports.

Van Gisbergen was in one of seven LMGTE Pro entries, and finished fifth in class.

Just days after returning Down Under, he flew to Darwin and took part in pre-event activities.

The Friday Darwin heat was a far cry to France, but van Gisbergen is adamant he’ll be “fine” come race day.

“I’m not sleeping perfect yet,” he said.

“That’s part of jet lag. I’m getting better every day.

“I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

The Le Mans appearance was among a number of extra-curricular starts for van Gisbergen.

It was confirmed Thursday that he will make his FIA World Rally Championship debut in New Zealand later this year.

He will steer the same Skoda he carried to a debut Australian Rally Championship podium in Canberra.

Van Gisbergen will also compete at the single-day Copthorne Bay of Islands Far North Rally a week before the NTI Townsville 500.

The Red Bull Ampol overalls have returned, and so has the Kiwi’s sharp focus on his title defence.

Van Gisbergen made a long-awaited Le Mans debut

Given impeding tyre degradation in the races, van Gisbergen said qualifying will be pivotal.

“Qualifying is going to be really important here,” he said.

“You need to be up front, it’s going to be super tough to race.

“You’ll be in the train sliding around. You’ll need to qualify well.

“We made some changes [to the car] after the first [session] and made the car better.

“First practice was alright; we just focused on race stuff. That one, we tried to find speed."

Van Gisbergen will return to the seat of his car on Saturday.

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