Will Davison has claimed his second win of the 2022 Supercars season in dominant fashion at Sandown.
The Shell V-Power Racing driver headed the field from pole, extending a small margin in the opening stint before pulling clear following his stop.
He headed Shane van Gisbergen to the line, the Red Bull Ampol Racing pilot pursued by Anton de Pasquale to the flag after the DJR driver made ground during the pit sequence.
At the race start, Davison held his pole position advantage into the opening corner, van Gisbergen fending off Will Brown in a clean start throughout the field.
That lasted only half a lap until Broc Feeney was pushed around at Dandenong Road, the Triple Eight driver slipping to the rear of the field.
It was an incident that caught the attentions of race control, which confirmed it was investigating the clash.
The contact which pushed Feeney came from Andre Heimgartner, the Kiwi picking up a 15-second penalty as a result.
Running 12th, Mostert found himself falling away from Heimgartner ahead, becoming something of a cork in the bottle for the second half of the pack.
Buried in the pack, David Reynolds and Chris Pither took their compulsory stop at the end of Lap 5, dropping to the tail end of the pack but in free air.
It was a low risk move as, already at the back, it offered the pair the opportunity to make up track position in clean air, and also cover off the prospect of a Safety Car.
James Golding opted for the same approach after six laps, the PremiAir driver emerging behind Reynolds.
Having run 10th, Scott Pye also opted for an early stop too, fitting two tyres to the rear of the Team 18 car.
On track and in free air, Reynolds was turning in personal and race-best sectors, his lap times better than those of race leader Davison.
Heimgartner took service on Lap 10, serving his 15s penalty after the team had fixed the damage bonnet, a remnant of his opening lap clash with Feeney.
Anton de Pasquale was the first of the leaders into the lane, pitting from fourth after 11 laps.
He was followed in by James Courtney, who ran fifth at the time, the pair feeding back in 19th and 20th respectively, covering off the threat posed by Pye.
De Pasquale’s early pace out of the pits was not a match for his team-mate, who continued to hold a slender advantage over van Gisbergen.
Davison was metronomic, circulating within a tenth of the best lap he’d sat in the opening 16 tours.
However, once de Pasquale’s tyres had built up temperature his speed was rapid, forcing the hand of the front runners to cover off the imminent threat he posed.
Van Gisbergen and Brown pitted on Lap 19, the pair having been running second and third respectively.
De Pasquale cleared Brown as the Erebus driver rejoined, though van Gisbergen held on to what was effectively second place.
DJR called Davison in next time by, handing the lead to Cameron Waters. The pole-sitter held on to his spot relative to van Gisbergen.
There was almost a moment between Tickford’s Thomas Randle and Courtney as the former emerged from the lane and appeared to weave to generate tyre temperature.
Courtney dived around the outside into Turn 1, Randle given a bad sportsmanship flag as a consequence of the awkward moment.
With 14 laps remaining, van Gisbergen and Courtney were shown the bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.
Holdsworth was the last to pit for his compulsory stop, doing so on Lap 23 to wash the field.
His return to the race was delayed with a sluggish getaway which proved to be a result of the car flaming out.
Once the field was washed, Davison was again in the lead from van Gisbergen, his advantage having opened to more than three seconds.
De Pasquale was third after jumping Brown in the pit sequence, then came Courtney and Pye who’d also made places through strategy.
Another strong gainer was Reynolds, who used free air in the opening laps to climb up to 12th, a more than 10-place jump from the Grove Racing driver.
At the head of the pack, Davison was untouchable, extending his advantage over van Gisbergen.
The Triple Eight driver meanwhile had de Pasquale harrying his bumper, the battle over second having pulled 1.6s clear of Brown heading into the final eight laps.
In the closing laps, a battle developed between Brown and Waters for fourth.
They came close into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap, and again into the final complex at the end of the lap.
That left Waters too far back to attack at the start of the final lap, while a mistake exiting Turn 4 dropped him off the back and allowed Brown to seal fourth in comparative comfort.
Waters retained fifth from Courtney, with the top 10 completed by Pye, Winterbottom, Randle, and Chaz Mostert.
Davison’s final margin of victory was 8.4920s after 36 laps of racing, van Gisbergen 0.6s clear of de Pasquale while Feeney picked up the bonus points for fastest lap.
Supercars are back on track on Sunday for back-to-back qualifying sessions for Races 25 and 26 from 10:55 AEST.
Results to follow
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