Fabian Coulthard made the most of a late Safety Car restart to steal the Race 5 victory from Mark Winterbottom at Symmons Plains.

Winterbottom had led away from pole and appeared to have Coulthard covered until the full course yellows flew with 10 laps to go.

The pause was triggered by a sickening accident for Scott Pye, who was lucky to walk away from a head-on impact with the Turn 2 exit wall after suffering a brake failure.

Coulthard dive-bombed Winterbottom at the Turn 4 hairpin with just three laps remaining, nudging the Pepsi Max FPR Falcon aside in the process.

Coulthard went on to take the win while Winterbottom limped to the line second with his left-front tyre flat following the contact.

James Courtney ran third for the entire journey to score his first podium of the year, while Jason Bright won a race long battle with Jamie Whincup on the final lap to take fourth.

Will Davison, Jonathon Webb, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander completed the top 10.

Todd Kelly joined Pye on the retirements list after an engine problem with his Nissan.

The race featured two Safety Cars, with the first called to retrieve the rear diffuser of Tim Slade’s Mercedes on Lap 6 after it had fallen onto the circuit.

A miraculous effort from Ford Performance Racing saw David Reynolds return to action following his Race 4 accident.

The car finished just 24th however after a receiving a mechanical black flag to fix left-front mudguard damage while running 12th.

The V8 Supercars Championship will continue New Zealand next weekend for Races 6, 7, 8 and 9 at Pukekohe.

See below for the Race 5 result

See below for the updated championship standings after Race 5