Davison extends points lead with Hamilton victory

Will Davison has extended his lead in the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship by taking out the opening leg of the ITM400 Hamilton.

The Trading Post FPR Falcon driver jumped from sixth on the grid to second in the opening two corners of the race, before eventually taking the lead from pole-sitter Garth Tander on Lap 27 of 59.

Davison survived a Safety Car restart with 16 laps to go to beat home Jamie Whincup by 2.53s, with Tander, Craig Lowndes, Rick Kelly, Steve Owen, James Courtney, Michael Caruso, Fabian Coulthard and Russell Ingall rounding out the top 10.

The victory is the ninth of Davison’s career and the first for both driver and team on the streets of Hamilton. The 29-year-old now holds a 30 point lead over Whincup in the championship standings, with Mark Winterbottom another 180 points adrift in third.

The race began in chaotic circumstances, with front-row starter Shane van Gisbergen leading into Turn 1 before a lock-up and a bump from David Reynolds saw the SP Tools Falcon shuffled back into the pack.

More drama unfolded at Turn 2, where Reynolds understeered wide, allowing pole-sitter Tander back into the lead.

Van Gisbergen’s chances effectively ended when contact with Jamie Whincup on the exit of Turn 2 bent the local hope’s steering.

Tander led Davison through the first round of pitstops but was unable to resist the advances of the points leader as the middle stint progressed.

Davison had built a near 4s lead over Tander once the second stops had been completed. The margin then evaporated when the Safety Car was called with 20 laps remaining to retrieve Alexandre Premat’s Fujitsu Racing GRM Commodore, which had become stranded in the Turn 6 run-off.

Tander pressured Davison on the restart before falling back into the clutches of Whincup.

The TeamVodafone driver had run fourth early before losing several positions with a stall at his first pitstop. Whincup clawed back the lost ground in the middle stint – spectacularly passing both Lowndes and Reynolds in one-go at Turn 5 before closing in on Tander.

Whincup eventually relieved the HRT driver of second at Turn 2 with four laps remaining – the two Holdens making minor side-to-side contact as Tander fought in vain to stave off his rival’s advances.

Reynolds had appeared set to finish fourth before contact with the Turn 4 tyre bundle broke The Bottle-O Racing Falcon’s right-front suspension seven laps from home.

Team-mate Mark Winterbottom fared little better – the Orrcon Steel Falcon finishing 23rd after losing two laps fixing steering damage that had also been inflicted by the Turn 4 tyre bundle.

Joining Reynolds and Premat on the retirements list where the Kelly Racing Commodores of Karl Reindler (broken steering) and Greg Murphy (broken suspension), and the Team Norton DJR Falcon of James Moffat. Car #18 sustained rear-end damage when a touch from Tony D’Alberto saw Moffat tag the Turn 7 exit wall early in the race.

A certain top 10 finish for D’Alberto later evaporated when the Hiflex Falcon was handed a drive-through penalty for making six kerb hopping breaches at the Turn 4 chicane.

Taz Douglas, Van Gisbergen and Jonathon Webb were also handed penalties for kerb infringements, with the Tekno Commodore having 28s added to its race time after its sixth infringement occurred on the penultimate lap.

Reynolds later received a 25 point post-race penalty for his Turn 1 clash with Van Gisbergen.

The V8  Supercars will return to the Hamilton street circuit for qualifying at 1205 local time tomorrow ahead of Race 6 at 1505.

See below for the full Race 5 result

See below for the updated championship standings