Davison dominates Sandown race one

Davison lost a place at the start to Whincup but passed him back on lap three, Davison then steadily extending his margin as he along with most of the front-runners chose to run the sprint tyre in today's race.

Second was James Courtney, who ran third for most of the race but benefitted from being the first of the leaders to pit as well a slow pitstop for Whincup. Craig Lowndes was close behind Courtney as the laps ticked off but wasn't able to make a move.

After starting tenth, fourth was a great result for Todd Kelly, up to seventh by the end of lap one and steadily making moves up the order from there. He led home a train of three other cars, with Michael Caruso, the delayed Jamie Whincup and a charging Russell Ingall who had taken the sprint tyres on at his pitstop.

Steven Johnson, David Reynolds and Fabian Coulthard completed the top ten runners, Johnson and Coulthard running strongly early on before their tyres faded as the laps wound down.

A decision to keep Mark Winterbottom out as long as possible as rain threatened possibly hurt him a little, finishing just outside the top ten in 12th place, while Garth Tander's qualifying error proved costly, only able to recover up to 17th place, Tander taking that position on the run to the chequered flag.

Pos  Driver                Make                  Time
 1.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   39:34.9720
 2.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        +   6.4203
 3.  Craig Lowndes         Ford Falcon FG        +   7.4804
 4.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +  18.3624
 5.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   +  18.7770
 6.  Jamie Whincup         Ford Falcon FG        +  19.1045
 7.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   +  19.4536
 8.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        +  24.9205
 9.  David Reynolds        Holden Commodore VE   +  25.5358
10.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford Falcon FG        +  27.6236
11.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   +  30.9911
12.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        +  32.6254
13.  Jack Perkins          Holden Commodore VE   +  40.0854
14.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        +  46.9630
15.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        +  47.8335
16.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        +  48.3597
17.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   +  51.0232
18.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   +  51.0959
19.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   +  51.2337
20.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   +  53.7435
21.  Tim Slade             Holden Commodore VE   +  59.2802
22.  Cameron McConville    Holden Commodore VE   +1:03.5713
23.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden Commodore VE   +    1 lap
24.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +    1 lap
25.  Dean Fiore            Holden Commodore VE   +    1 lap
26.  Mark McNally          Holden Commodore VE   +    1 lap

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make                  Laps
     Jason Bright          Ford Falcon FG         28    
     Michael Patrizi       Ford Falcon BF         27