The reigning Bathurst 1000 winners controlled the majority of a rapid 500-kilometre race that ran green from lights to flag.

Apart from a poor launch, Hazelwood’s opening two stints were flawless as he handed the Shell Ford over to Kostecki in a commanding lead.

Kostecki, however, came under pressure from Waters in the third and fourth stints, the gap between the pair often inside a second.

Kostecki was able to fend off Waters, though, ultimately crossing the line three seconds ahead.

“[Hazelwood] did an awesome job, gave us a good margin to settle into the race,” said Kostecki.

“The stint before last the car was a bit too edgy for me. We tuned it up and I was able to manage the gap to Cam and bring it home. I’m super stoked for everyone at Shell V-Power Racing.”

It was an all-Ford podium, with Waters/Mark Winterbottom finishing ahead of Matt Payne and Garth Tander.

Somewhat remarkably, the best-placed Camaro was Will Brown and Scott Pye who came from 16th on the grid to finish fourth.

Their cause was somewhat helped by a shocker on the other side of the Triple Eight garage, with a refuelling issue at the first stop taking Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup out of contention.

They finished a lowly 19th.

Hazelwood was the star of the first stint, despite being swamped by both Tickford Mustangs at the first corner.

That initially dropped him from third to fifth, although he was quickly able to clear both James Moffat and Winterbottom, before passing Cam McLeod for second at the start of lap 5.

Hazelwood then closed up on the back of leader Whincup, although the seven-time champion proved a tough nut to crack.

It took until the start of lap 15 for Hazelwood to get past the Triple Eight Camaro with a clinical move into the first corner.

Hazelwood was then able to ease away from Whincup, the gap around 2.5 seconds when Whincup took his first service at the end of lap 24.

That was where the #88’s race unraveled, a fuel delivery issue making it an incredibly slow stop while still leaving the car well short on fuel.

Whincup effectively tumbled down the order to outside the top 10, and with a costly fuel offset, while Hazelwood made a trouble-free stop two laps later, resuming in a comfortable 3.5-second lead ahead of Winterbottom.

Hazelwood was able to extend that advantage over the next 20 laps before handing the Shell Mustang over to Kostecki.

The 2023 champion didn’t resume in the lead, though, having been undercut by Chaz Mostert, who had taken over from Fabian Coulthard nine laps earlier.

Mostert was able to maintain a five-odd second gap over Kostecki, however was committed to the four-stopper which meant pitting around lap 60 and forfeiting the lead.

That put the #38 back in the lead, although now Kostecki had Waters closing in. The Monster Mustang was able to get within half a second before Waters took his final stop on lap 74.

Kostecki responded a lap later, resisting the initial undercut but immediately coming back under fire from Waters.

From there it was a tense battle that lasted the remainder of the race, Kostecki only able to properly shake Waters in the final handful of laps.

The Payne/Tander car ended up a somewhat lonely third, 7.6 seconds behind the winners and more than six seconds ahead of fourth.

The #1 Camaro made good early progress in the hands of Pye which set Brown up for his run home to fourth place.

South Australian duo Nick Percat and Tim Slade finished fifth ahead of Ryan Wood and Jayden Ojeda, who had to recover from a tough opening lap that saw Ojeda shuffled outside of the top 10.

Erebus ran an offset driver strategy with its #99 entry, Cooper Murray the only regular primary driver to start the race.

That put rookie co-driver Jobe Stewart in the firing line for stint against the primaries, however he held his own, handed the car back to Murray and they finished a fine seventh.

The Mostert/Coulthard four-stopper yielded eighth ahead of Randle/Moffat and Anton De Pasquale and Harri Jones.

Feeney, meanwhile, could only recover to 19th after that tough first three stints with Whincup at the wheel, which also included two excursions at Turn 10.

In terms of the fight for the Finals the big loser was Andre Heimgartner, he and Declan Fraser finishing way down in 27th after Fraser was left struggling with a faulty clutch, and steering damage from contact with Cameron Crick early in the race.

Heimgartner had been sitting eighth ahead of today’s race but is now 11th.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship AirTouch 500 at The Bend