Feeney ran a traditional two-stop strategy, looking to leverage both his strong early track position and the remarkable outright speed that saw him clean sweep Saturday’s races.
Payne, who started back in 11th, took advantage of an early first stop to then stop again during a mid-race Safety Car to get the mandatory stops done, before nursing four green tyres almost 50 laps to the finish.
The outcome was Payne in the lead but out of grip as Feeney hunted him down in the closing laps.
Ultimately Payne did enough, holding on by half a tenth of a second as they crossed the finish line side-by-side.
According to Payne, the decision to make two quick stops if there was a caution was a premeditated one.
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“We knew coming in that we were going to do the double stop if there was a Safety Car; it was interesting, I thought there would be some others doing it,” Payne told the broadcast.
“I knew Will [Brown] did it behind us. The car just held on to its tyres really good. It’s bloody hard to hold onto them around here when you need to use the rears so much, but I was really focussing every lap, trying to eke every single little bit out of it and make no mistakes.
“I knew I could run high 52s all day, that was my pace. I knew that I was going to cover off Will if I was running those times.
“I didn’t know Broc was going to come so hard at the end. I couldn’t see him for a while and all of a sudden he was within three seconds. It was seriously close. The last lap was everything it had. I don’t think it’s got anything left on it now.”
As for the final lap, Payne said: “Once I got through the hairpin I knew I could cover him down the back, but still he put up a good fight.”
The Kiwi added: “That’s definitely got to be one of the best races I’ve done. To do 50 laps or whatever it was on the same set of tyres is unreal.
“It’s been tough this weekend to get it in the window but I think we made some gains in this race.”
Feeney was gallant in defeat, clearly relishing the battle after a stunning stint from the restart onwards, even if he didn’t complete the weekend sweep.
“I knew it was going to be with a couple of laps to go [when I caught him],” said Feeney.
“[Engineer] Marty [Short] was giving me lap updates, how close, and I’m like, ‘oh my god, it’s going to be maybe with two laps to go’.
“Just before the end I started running out of a little bit of rear tyre. We came across some traffic as well.
“Look, you can’t really be too disappointed about it. It’s still great points on the board. I would have loved to get the win and the sweep this weekend, but we’ve certainly bounced back from New Zealand.”
Speaking of points, the two Saturday wins and a second on Sunday left Feeney with a 33-point series lead over teammate Brown.
“I said coming into this weekend I want to leave leading it,” he said. “To have that big of a swing in points is awesome.
“The best thing is just how fast we were. I’ve been able to qualify at the front this year but being able to race through like that in that race… some people say I haven’t been aggressive enough. I think I’ve shown I can get through the pack and do the job in the race too.
“I’m stoked. The hard work is paying off.”
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