Craig Lowndes wins Eastern Creek V8 Supercars, Jamie Whincup loses points lead

Whincup's troubles started with a very slow start from pole, which left him down in eighth initially as front row qualifier Jonathon Webb stormed away in the lead.

Tekno driver Webb, who had delivered a career-best qualifying performance, was the only frontrunner on soft tyres for the first stint, so was able to pull out a huge lead as the regular protagonists battled spectacularly in his wake.

Lowndes ran fourth initially but making an early pitstop for softs on lap 11 proved to be a masterstroke.

He jumped to the front of the queue chasing Webb, and quickly caught and passed the Tekno Holden once it was on hards.

With Webb dropping down the order thereafter, Lowndes managed to make his tyres last to the end and kept Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom at arm's length to secure victory.

Winterbottom's second place moved him into the points lead as Whincup's day went further downhill. By the time the pitstops had all cycled through, the champion was back up to fourth and chasing Winterbottom's team-mate Will Davison.

But Whincup then suffered a delaminating tyre and had a nightmare final few laps trying to nurse the car home. He eventually fell right back to 23rd place.

A strong performance by Holden Racing Team saw Garth Tander and James Courtney battle through to fourth and sixth, split by hard-charging Walkinshaw driver Russell Ingall, who led for a while with a very long first stint on softs.

Qualifying stars Michael Caruso and Webb eventually slid back to eighth and ninth, behind Shane van Gisbergen, with Jason Bright rounding out the top 10.

Results - 36 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Craig Lowndes        Triple 8 Holden        56m17.3122s
 2.  Mark Winterbottom    FPR Ford                 + 1.4611s
 3.  Will Davison         FPR Ford                + 13.4500s
 4.  Garth Tander         HRT Holden              + 21.0360s
 5.  Russell Ingall       Walkinshaw Holden       + 21.2195s
 6.  James Courtney       HRT Holden              + 26.7308s
 7.  Shane van Gisbergen  Stone Brothers Ford     + 30.8694s
 8.  Michael Caruso       Garry Rogers Holden     + 32.0265s
 9.  Jonathon Webb        Tekno Holden            + 32.7730s
10.  Jason Bright         Brad Jones Holden       + 32.9410s
11.  Tony D'Alberto       D'Alberto Ford          + 35.8713s
12.  Fabian Coulthard     Brad Jones Holden       + 36.1584s
13.  David Reynolds       Rod Nash/FPR Ford       + 38.7223s
14.  Todd Kelly           Kelly Holden            + 40.9855s
15.  Michael Patrizi      Tekno Holden            + 47.6950s
16.  Tim Slade            Rosenberg/SBR Ford      + 49.9326s
17.  Rick Kelly           Kelly Holden            + 51.0568s
18.  David Wall           Britek/BJR Holden       + 55.1999s
19.  James Moffat         Dick Johnson Ford     + 1m02.5246s
20.  Steve Owen           Paul Morris/DJR Ford  + 1m09.6493s
21.  Taz Douglas          Dumbrell Holden       + 1m12.9488s
22.  Karl Reindler        Kelly Holden          + 1m14.5091s
23.  Jamie Whincup        Triple 8 Holden       + 1m19.7271s
24.  Jacques Villeneuve   Kelly Holden          + 1m28.4113s
25.  Dean Fiore           Triple F/DJR Ford          + 1 lap
26.  Lee Holdsworth       Stone Brothers Ford        + 1 lap
27.  Steven Johnson       Dick Johnson Ford          + 1 lap
28.  Alexandre Premat     Garry Rogers Holden       + 2 laps