Will Davison beats Mark Winterbottom to Symmons Plain V8 Supercars win

The duo had also shared the front row, and although Winterbottom had taken pole, it was Davison who jumped ahead at the start and took charge.

While his team-mate edged away, Winterbottom - who felt his winter leg injury was compromising his starts - got embroiled in hard-fought tussles with Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight Holden) and Shane van Gisbergen (Stone Brothers Ford)

After shaking off van Gisbergen, Winterbottom reclaimed second from Whincup when the champion ran wide at Turn 7 just before the pitstops began.

Winterbottom was able to gain on Davison during the tyre changes, and put his team-mate under concerted pressure at times in the second half of the race, but Davison always managed to hang on.

Whincup eventually escaped from a four-car pack to secure the final podium spot, with van Gisbergen resisting Whincup's team-mate Craig Lowndes for fourth. David Reynolds was in this group for a while in the third Ford from FPR's stable, as he finished sixth, just ahead of Garth Tander (Holden Racing Team) and Tim Slade (James Rosenberg/Stone Brothers).

Former champion James Courtney's tough run in the second HRT car got no better as he clashed with Kelly Racing's Rick Kelly on lap one.

Results - 59 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Will Davison         FPR Ford             52m30.5485s
 2.  Mark Winterbottom    FPR Ford               + 0.6395s
 3.  Jamie Whincup        Triple 8 Holden        + 9.1028s
 4.  Shane van Gisbergen  Stone Brothers Ford   + 13.3803s
 5.  Craig Lowndes        Triple 8 Holden       + 13.7788s
 6.  David Reynolds       Rod Nash/FPR Ford     + 18.8631s
 7.  Garth Tander         HRT Holden            + 20.2176s
 8.  Tim Slade            Rosenberg/SBR Ford    + 20.4327s
 9.  Lee Holdsworth       Stone Brothers Ford   + 27.3373s
10.  Todd Kelly           Kelly Holden          + 31.1626s
11.  Steven Johnson       Dick Johnson Ford     + 36.5306s
12.  Taz Douglas          Dumbrell Holden       + 37.1313s
13.  Steve Owen           Dick Johnson Ford     + 39.0861s
14.  James Moffat         Dick Johnson Ford     + 39.5981s
15.  Michael Caruso       Garry Rogers Holden   + 40.3658s
16.  Fabian Coulthard     Brad Jones Holden     + 48.8080s
17.  Alexandre Premat     Garry Rogers Holden   + 51.8426s
18.  James Courtney       HRT Holden               + 1 lap
19.  Rick Kelly           Kelly Holden             + 1 lap
20.  Michael Patrizi      Tekno Holden             + 1 lap
21.  David Russell        Kelly Holden             + 1 lap
22.  Dean Fiore           Triple F Ford            + 1 lap
23.  Karl Reindler        Kelly Holden             + 1 lap
24.  Russell Ingall       Walkinshaw Holden       + 2 laps
25.  Jason Bright         Brad Jones Holden       + 8 laps
26.  Tony D'Alberto       D'Alberto Ford         + 10 laps

Did not finish:

     Jonathon Webb        Tekno Holden             26 laps
     David Wall           Britek/BJR Holden        20 laps