Supercars Queensland: Whincup snaps winless streak ahead of Davison

The seven-time series champion came into the event after a 24-race drought - his last win coming at the Sandown 500 in September 2018.

It was his longest winless streak since joining powerhouse squad Triple Eight in 2006.

But he broke that streak in style at the Ipswich circuit, out-muscling Scott McLaughlin on the first lap and out-lasting a fast finishing Will Davison to take victory.

Whincup and McLaughlin staged a wild side-by-side battle through Turns 1 and 2 on the opening lap, with the Red Bull Holden driver winning out to grab the lead, while McLaughlin found himself shuffled back to third behind Davison.

Parked behind Davison's Tickford Mustang, and with Whincup 2.9 seconds down the road, McLaughlin tried to make an undercut by stopping on lap 10 of what would be a 39-lap race.

But a problem on the left front meant his stop was more than five seconds longer than usual.

Whincup continued to pull away from Davison across the first stint, with his lead at 4.2s when he made his stop on lap 15.

He emerged six seconds ahead of McLaughlin, and with clean air and fresh tyres at his disposal.

Davison stayed out until lap 19, which was enough to not only lose a little more ground to Whincup, but to end up behind McLaughlin as well.

McLaughlin did briefly make in-roads on Whincup's advantage, getting to within 4.5s of the leader as the stops shook out.

But with 13 laps remaining the DJR Team Penske driver ran out of steam, which opened the door for Davison to reclaim second place.

Davison's Tickford team-mate Chaz Mostert followed suit, relegating McLaughlin to fourth a lap later.

With his tyres in better condition, Davison was able to eat into Whincup's lead during the run to the flag.

But it was not enough and Whincup held on to break his winless streak to the win by 2.1s.

"I've been reminded, especially the last couple of months, that I haven't had a win for a while," said Whincup. "So it's certainly fantastic to get a win.

"A big thanks to the Holden supporters for hanging in there, we've had a bit of a drought, it's been a tough run, but we've been chipping away."

Mostert finished up third after he was unable to hang onto Davison in the closing stages despite the pair running an identical strategy.

McLaughlin came home fourth ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, with another pair of Tickford Mustangs sixth and seventh thanks to Cam Waters and Lee Holdsworth.

Nick Percat finished eighth, David Reynolds ninth and Fabian Coulthard was 10th.

Results - 39 laps