Courtney dominant after Whincup DNF

Whincup was leading and looked set for victory, or a strong battle with Courtney, but his hopes disappeared as soon as the race restarted on lap 27. He was immediately passed by several cars and parked the car in the pits at the end of the next lap with a broken rocker.

Courtney lost a few seconds during the first stint but the safety car period for Jason Bargwanna's broken engine bunched the field. Courtney took over at the front although he did lose the lead for a lap to Tander just after he'd taken it from Whincup.

From there on it was plain sailing for Courtney as he pulled away in a commanding fashion, although a decision to stay out later before making his final pitstop saw him rejoin only just in the lead. But with fresher tyres, he pulled away once more, winning by over 11 seconds.

Second was Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander, who had lost the place to Ingall during the second round of pitstops after pitting just one lap later. He took the place back with ten laps remaining.

Third, and closing on Tander fast, was Shane van Gisbergen, repeating his race one performance. Having dropped from fifth to sixth during the final round of pitstops, he then used his superior grip to pick off cars ahead to almost steal second place at the finish.

Russell Ingall just held on to fourth place doing the opposite, pitting early for the final time and slowly dropping down the order. Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes was fifth, and on a day when his team-mate lost out on a possible win, his day didn't end completely happy either.

Running third right behind Tander and with Ingall right behind him before his final pitstop, he stayed out six laps longer than Ingall and five laps longer than Tander, pitting as late in the race as anyone for their final stop.

What had been third was now 11th, and despite fresher tyres and much better pace than almost all of those ahead of him, instead of possibly moving up to second ahead of Tander, he finished fifth over five seconds behind him despite passing six cars in the final 17 laps.

One of those cars he passed was Fujitsu Racing's Michael Caruso, who had qualified 27th. He had made up ten places before his own first stop, and when the safety car came out for Bargwanna's stranded car, he gained even more ground, taking the restart in ninth.

During the middle of the race he moved up to seventh, and by pitting early for his final stop, moved up even further to fourth. The early stop cost him in the closing laps but a sixth place after starting third-last was a remarkable effort.

Completing the top ten finishers were Rick Kelly, the race winner's team-mate Steven Johnson, and a couple of good drives by Steven Richards and Tony D'Alberto. Tander's team-mate Will Davison struggled again particularly early in the race on his way to 16th place.

While Caruso had a great race, his team-mate Lee Holdsworth had a bad one. Having qualified fifth, he struggled to get moving at the start and fell back through the order. He compounded his dramas by moving across to the right just as Mark Winterbottom was passing him on the inside.

Though Holdsworth's move wasn't aggressive, it was still enough to clip the back of Winterbottom's car hard enough to spin him across Holdsworth's nose and hard into the fence on the other side of the track, ending Winterbottom's day on the spot.

Despite moving across with another car alongside him and ending that driver's race, no penalty was given. However, damage to Holdsworth's car saw him spend time in the pits, finish ten laps down in last place.

Whincup's DNF has big implications in the title fight. Despite his six wins and only finishing once outside the top five (when controversially blackflagged for loose bodywork at Adelaide) before today's DNF, Whincup's lead in the championship is almost nothing, just 24 points over Courtney.

207 points behind Whincup is Shane van Gisbergen, who along with several other drivers including Garth Tander 12 points behind van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes three points behind Tander, have leaped ahead this weekend of Mark Winterbottom and Lee Holdsworth after those drivers' dramas today.

Pos  Driver                Make                  Time
 1.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        1h26m25.0810s
 2.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   +    11.5168s
 3.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        +    13.4696s
 4.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   +    16.7235s
 5.  Craig Lowndes         Holden Commodore VE   +    16.9760s
 6.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   +    20.1531s
 7.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +    21.0493s
 8.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        +    21.7347s
 9.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        +    26.7032s
10.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE   +    27.9506s
11.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VE   +    30.2862s
12.  Jonathon Webb         Ford Falcon FG        +    37.0768s
13.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   +    39.8781s
14.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   +    44.1166s
15.  Dean Fiore            Ford Falcon FG        +    44.3644s
16.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   +    53.1350s
17.  Tim Slade             Ford Falcon FG        +    57.8693s
18.  Daniel Gaunt          Holden Commodore VE   +  1m00.1906s
19.  Paul Dumbrell         Ford Falcon FG        +  1m02.8283s
20.  Fabian Coulthard      Holden Commodore VE   +  1m03.8137s
21.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        +  1m03.9028s
22.  Tony Ricciardello     Holden Commodore VE   +  1m11.6993s
23.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   +     10 laps

Not classified/retirements:
                           
     Driver                Make                  Laps
     Karl Reindler         Holden Commodore VE    53 
     Andrew Thompson       Holden Commodore VE    41 
     Jamie Whincup         Holden Commodore VE    27 
     Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE    20 
     Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE     4 
     Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG          0