Whincup wins race one at Sandown

Whincup led away at the start led the rest of the way ahead of Mark Winterbottom, apart from a period during the compulsory pitstops.

While the leading duo had a quiet and relatively comfortable race, there was action behind them. At turn four on lap one, Todd Kelly, Steven Richards and Garth Tander made chain reaction contact, with Richards and Kelly both spinning to the back of the order.

The battle for the minor positions settled down for the next few laps but reignited after the leaders made their pitstops, though it also saw the early retirement of Will Davison with an engine problem after running third in the opening laps of the race.

Tander was one of the last of the front-runners to pit on lap 10, but having started 12th and moved up to eighth on lap one, he made even more ground during the pitstops.

Emerging third of those who had stopped, he came out just ahead of Craig Lowndes. On cold tyres, Tander took the defensive line into turn one, and again into the turn two and three esses.

Because of the line he took, or the cold tyres, Tander was slow through the middle of the esses and coming out the other side, earning him a nudge from behind from Lowndes. It continued on at turn four where again Tander drove defensively, and again Lowndes made contact.

Lowndes, Rick Kelly and Russell Ingall then all passed Tander down the back straight, but the action was not all over as Lowndes, Kelly and Ingall entered the esses on the inside line.

Kelly lost it in the first left, caught it, then lost it again in the right and spun a full 360 degrees in front of Ingall, who along with Tander, avoided the rotating Kelly.

Meanwhile Kelly completed the spin and rejoined behind Courtney, three places down from where he entered the esses, but remarkably having avoided contact with other cars or with the wall.

From that point on the race calmed down, with Lowndes continuing on to take third place, ahead of Ingall, Tander and Courtney. Rick Kelly came home in seventh place, just ahead of Fabian Coulthard, with Shane van Gisbergen, who had started 17th, and Mark Skaife completing the top ten.

Pos  Driver                Make     Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Ford     47:18.7876
 2.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford     +   3.2411
 3.  Craig Lowndes         Ford     +  11.6272
 4.  Russell Ingall        Holden   +  15.6699
 5.  Garth Tander          Holden   +  17.7813
 6.  James Courtney        Ford     +  18.1854
 7.  Rick Kelly            Holden   +  24.1038
 8.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford     +  24.4558
 9.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford     +  30.0418
10.  Mark Skaife           Holden   +  31.0344
11.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden   +  31.3552
12.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden   +  31.8680
13.  Steven Johnson        Ford     +  32.2291
14.  Cameron McConville    Holden   +  32.7688
15.  Paul Morris           Holden   +  38.2186
16.  Andrew Jones          Holden   +  43.8810
17.  Todd Kelly            Holden   +  44.1698
18.  Jason Richards        Holden   +  45.0660
19.  Shane Price           Holden   +  48.8036
20.  Michael Caruso        Holden   +  52.7776
21.  Kayne Scott           Ford     +1:03.8147
22.  Greg Murphy           Holden   +1:04.6505
23.  Steven Richards       Ford     +1:04.7122
24.  Andrew Thompson       Holden   +1:36.9165
25.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden   +   9 laps 

Not classified/retirements:
                           
     Driver                Make     Laps
     Jason Bright          Ford      11   
     Michael Patrizi       Ford       9   
     Will Davison          Ford       7   
     Marcus Marshall       Ford       6