Queensland V8 Supercars: Jamie Whincup beats Craig Lowndes to win
Jamie Whincup took a big slice out of Mark Winterbottom's V8 Supercars championship lead by beating Triple Eight Holden team-mate Craig Lowndes to race one victory at Queensland Raceway
After filling the front row, Lowndes and Whincup edged away from the pack as one in the first half of the race, with the reigning champion clinging tightly to his team-mate's tail.
When Lowndes ran wide onto the front straight just after half-distance, Whincup got a run and grabbed the lead into Turn 1.
He went in too deep and Lowndes was able to slice back through, but a dive at Turn 3 got Whincup ahead for good, and he then pulled away to win by 4.6 seconds.
Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin was a lonely third. He will start on pole for Saturday's second race.
While Fabian Coulthard had a very quiet race to fourth, the battle behind was fraught.
Winterbottom only qualified seventh, but passed erstwhile Ford Performance Racing team-mate Will Davison's Erebus Mercedes mid-race and then closed in on the Holden Racing Team Commodore of James Courtney.
The points leader dived past Courtney as they started the first lap, but Courtney immediately retaliated, giving Davison another shot back at Winterbottom too.
After a wild final half-lap, Courtney, Winterbottom and Davison crossed the line covered by just 0.2s, with Winterbottom's lead over Whincup down to 72 points and an 11th-place start looming in race two, where Whincup will be on the second row.
Just behind this group, Garth Tander muscled his way through to eighth from 15th on the grid.
Results - 33 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Jamie Whincup Triple Eight Holden 39m15.7016s
2. Craig Lowndes Triple Eight Holden +4.6356s
3. Scott McLaughlin GRM Volvo +7.9625s
4. Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Holden +12.2176s
5. James Courtney HRT Holden +14.9171s
6. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford +15.0452s
7. Will Davison Erebus Mercedes +15.1652s
8. Garth Tander HRT Holden +18.9102s
9. David Reynolds Rod Nash/FPR Ford +21.7084s
10. Shane van Gisbergen Tekno Holden +22.8393s
11. Rick Kelly Nissan +23.1473s
12. Nick Percat Walkinshaw/HRT Holden +24.4415s
13. Michael Caruso Nissan +25.4860s
14. Chaz Mostert FPR Ford +26.4111s
15. Tim Slade Rosenberg/HRT Holden +26.4140s
16. Scott Pye Dick Johnson Ford +26.6797s
17. Lee Holdsworth Erebus Mercedes +26.8461s
18. Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden +27.1685s
19. David Wall Dick Johnson Ford +30.6452s
20. Russell Ingall Dumbrell Holden +31.6797s
21. Jack Perkins Schwerkolt/FPR Ford +32.6046s
22. Dale Wood Britek/BJR Holden +38.8038s
23. Robert Dahlgren GRM Volvo +39.9072s
24. Todd Kelly Nissan -2 laps
Retirements:
James Moffat Nissan 30 laps
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