Whincup dominates Hamilton race one

Whincup squeezed past pole man Mark Winterbottom on lap one and didn't look back, quickly opening a margin over the Ford Performance Racing driver, Whincup leading from start to finish apart from a few laps after his pit stop in the middle of the race.

Winterbottom was next best but never looked like taking the win away from Whincup. A steady drive from Garry Rogers driver Lee Holdsworth saw him finish third, putting pressure on Winterbottom after the second restart with four laps remaining but unable to make a pass.

This late-race restart shook up the order not far behind him however, as drivers got caught out as some cars were slow to get up to speed as they crossed the start/finish line to go back to racing.

Will Davison and Steven Johnson remained unchanged in fourth and fifth, but just behind them their teammates, Garth Tander and James Courtney, who were running sixth and seventh, suffered as Courtney got caught out by the slowing cars in front of him and slammed into the back of Tander's car as they approached the restart.

Both cars struggled over the remaining laps, Tander falling to 11th, Courtney dropping to 13th. This allowed Wilson Security's Fabian Coulthard to move up to sixth, having qualified a disappointing 21st, but quickly moved up to tenth after the first safety car restart on lap nine.

Next were the Kelly brothers Rick and Todd, with Irwin Racing's Alex Davison and Team BOC's Jason Richards completing the top ten after also climbing up the order from 16th and 20th respectively.

Whincup's team-mate Craig Lowndes looked set for a top-ten result despite some handling woes which saw him lose ground in the first half of the race, but mechanical woes forced him to pit a couple of times and he ended three laps down in 24th place.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     1:27:20.3645
 2.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +     1.5378
 3.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +     2.3123
 4.  Will Davison          Holden   +     5.5655
 5.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +     8.0897
 6.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +     8.5742
 7.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +     9.8645
 8.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +    11.5782
 9.  Alex Davison          Ford     +    14.1187
10.  Jason Richards        Holden   +    15.4099
11.  Garth Tander          Holden   +    17.2794
12.  David Reynolds        Holden   +    17.6000
13.  James Courtney        Ford     +    18.0627
14.  Michael Patrizi       Ford     +    18.7178
15.  Steven Richards       Ford     +    19.6224
16.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +    28.2723
17.  Shane van Gisbergen   Ford     +    39.8086
18.  Paul Dumbrell         Holde    +     1 lap
19.  Jack Perkins          Holde    +     1 lap
20.  Tony D'Alberto        Holde    +     1 lap
21.  Jason Bright          Ford     +     1 lap
22.  Dale Wood             Holde    +     1 lap
23.  Russell Ingall        Holde    +     1 lap
24.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     +     4 laps
25.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +     7 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make     Laps
     Dean Fiore            Holden    56
     Marcus Marshall       Ford      53
     Jason Bargwanna       Holden    44
     Tim Slade             Holden    17
     Greg Murphy           Holden     5