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Lowndes wins race one at Winton

Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes took victory in the first race of this weekend's event at Winton Motor Raceway, leading home a team 1-2

Lowndes ran in the top five in the early laps as drivers ran a variety of strategies in the first race that drivers could choose to use a softer tyre for part or all of the race.

But his decision to switch on to the softer tyre at his mid-race pitstop proved decisive when the safety car came on to the track on lap 21 for a stranded Jason Bargwanna. He restarted fifth but led within three laps thanks to his extra pace versus those either on worn soft tyres or the slower standard tyres.

His team-mate Jamie Whincup finished second after taking his pitstop for fuel at the end of lap one, his decision to run the softer tyres throughout the race almost costing him at the very end as a hard-charging Steven Richards harassed him for the last couple of laps.

Fourth was Rick Kelly, another to use the softer tyre, just ahead of Cameron McConville who started 12th. After his big off in qualifying sixth was a remarkable result for Shane van Gisbergen, having started the race in 27th place.

There was an extremely close battle for seventh place on the final lap, Will Davison beating team-mate Garth Tander by just over four-hundredths of a second, with Supercheap's Russell Ingall less than a hundredth behind Tander, the three cars virtually crossing the line as one.

Tander had had a troubled race, spun on lap three by Fabian Coulthard while in second place. Just after the restart on lap 23, side-to-side contact entering the final corner left Tander with two heavily damaged doors on the right of the car, and Winterbottom with damaged steering, which saw Winterbottom slide from the top ten to 25th.

Lap 26 and Tander dived inside Lee Holdsworth for fourth at turn seven. But on the exit Tander didn't give Holdsworth enough room and the two cars made contact, possibly damaging the steering of Holdsworth's car, Holdsworth going straight ahead, Tander sent spinning again.

Tander fell to fourteenth but recovered to eighth, while Holdsworth finished 23rd a lap down.

Holdsworth's team-mate Michael Caruso finished tenth but was the big loser when the safety car came out. Starting on the soft tyres, he had a lead of around seven seconds over Whincup when the safety car came out, and over 30 seconds over eventual winner Lowndes.

But he couldn't find the same pace after the safety car period ended and fell down the order in the closing laps.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     49:26.6167
 2.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     +   4.1671
 3.  Steven Richards       Ford     +   4.3868
 4.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +  10.0834
 5.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +  10.6708
 6.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +  14.3185
 7.  Will Davison          Holden   +  16.8908
 8.  Garth Tander          Holden   +  16.9327
 9.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +  16.9425
10.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +  18.1989
11.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +  20.5874
12.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +  21.2424
13.  Jason Richards        Holden   +  24.0772
14.  Jason Bright          Ford     +  26.1772
15.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +  27.4627
16.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +  27.6956
17.  Marcus Marshall       Ford     +  28.1384
18.  Tim Slade             Holden   +  29.1118
19.  Jack Perkins          Holden   +  35.5171
20.  David Reynolds        Holden   +  40.3301
21.  Alex Davison          Ford     +   1 lap
22.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +   1 lap
23.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +   1 lap
24.  Dale Wood             Holden   +   1 lap
25.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +   1 lap
26.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden   +   3 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Make     Laps
     Dean Fiore            Holden    19
     James Courtney        Ford      17
     Michael Patrizi       Ford       6

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