Mostert beats Lowndes to Race 16 victory

Chaz Mostert scored the second win of his V8 Supercars Championship career with a commanding performance in Race 16 at Barbagallo.

On the one-year anniversary of his debut in the championship, Mostert led home Craig Lowndes by two seconds at the end of the 200km contest.

Mark Winterbottom completed the podium ahead of Jamie Whincup, Fabian Coulthard, Jason Bright, David Wall, James Moffat, David Reynolds and Michael Caruso.

Pole-sitter Lowndes led the early stages but dropped track position to Mostert while stuck behind a three-stopping Jason Bright early in the second stint.

Mostert was the first of the leaders to pit at both rounds of stops, ensuring he kept his track position over Lowndes ahead of the final 30 lap stint to the flag.

Winterbottom meanwhile ran second to Lowndes early, but dropped behind Mostert and James Courtney with a long run on his first set of tyres.

Taking Courtney when the Holden Racing Team Commodore fell out of contention with a puncture, Winterbottom closed in on the leaders through the middle phase of the race.

Again running longer on his tyres in the second stint eventually saw Winterbottom rejoin from his final stop 10 seconds behind and effectively out of contention.

The race was the third consecutive 200km V8 Supercars contest to run without a single Safety Car period.

The result sees Winterbottom’s championship lead over Lowndes sit at 101 points heading to Hidden Valley next month.

See below for the full race result for Race 16

STANDINGS