Supercars rookie Ojeda led from pole position and never looked back, building an impressive lead early on over the Ferrari of Jaxon Evans and Mercedes of Brendon Leitch.

Lucchitti and Ojeda rebounded from a DNF on Saturday to bring the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG home 3.3s ahead of Elliot Schutte and Evans in the Arise Racing Ferrari 296.

Reigning champion Brad Schumacher rounded out the podium alongside Broc Feeney in the Melbourne Performance Centre-run Audi R8.

Team BRM driver Ryan Wood got past Feeney at the race start and attempted to work his way around the outside of Leitch at Turn 1. However, contact with Leitch sent Wood into a tank-slapper and off into the gravel trap.

Will Davison had an enormous slide in the middle of Turn 1 on his own, and dropped back

Everyone continued with minimal damage, but not before Volante Rosso’s owner-drive Josh Hunt was spun in his McLaren 720S at Turn 2 off the nose of the Luke Youlden-driven Porsche 911, which drew the Safety Car.

After the restart, Ojeda continued to lead Evans and Leitch.

Davison came together with Paul Stokell’s Audi at Turn 10, taking the Ferrari out of the race.

A heart-stopping moment came when Leitch almost collided with the rear of Evans as the lead group entered the pit lane for their compulsory pit stop.

Schumacher took over the Audi from Feeney, but a 15-second success penalty and a slight delay in the pit lane behind the Oscar Targett/Shane Smollen Mercedes meant that the Steve Brooks/Ryan Wood Audi was able to undercut the pair.

As Schumacher attempted a recovery mission from seventh position, he made light contact with Smollen at Turn 2. The net result was the Mercedes in the gravel and the Safety Car drawn to recover it.

Lucchitti’s lead evaporated, setting up a grandstand finish as Mark Rosser was the fastest Am driver on the circuit in fourth place.

Rosser’s speed ultimately ended in trouble. He tried to pass Schutte at Turn 4, but went too deep into the turn and collided with the Brendon Leitch/Sergio Pires Tigani Mercedes.

A frustrated Pires climbed from the stricken Mercedes, slamming the door in disgust as Rosser crossed the line in sixth position.

Rosser was subsequently handed a 40-second penalty, dropping him and Pro co-driver Thomas Randle to 10th place.

The battle for the Trophy class was not without trouble. Alex Gardner and Lee Stibbs won the class in ninth outright, despite Gardner exploring the gravel trap in the mid-part of the race.

Gardner led home Stokell and Matt Stoupas in 12th, while Luke Youlden and Nathan Halstead failed to finish from opening lap damage.

GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS returns at The Bend on May 8-10.