Thompson extends points lead with win

Andrew Thompson has extended his Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series lead after a largely uneventful opening race of the weekend at Bathurst.

The Monster Commodore driver led every one of the 14 laps from pole position, pulling a 1.5s advantage at the end of the opening tour before easing away to win by 3.4s.

Russell ended the race a similarly comfortable 2.3s ahead of Jack Perkins, who recovered well after falling from second on the grid to fifth Lap 1 thanks to a poor start.

Perkins overhauled Nick Percat for third at Griffins Bend with three laps remaining, while Paul Morris, Tim Blanchard, Rodney Jane, David Wall, Marcus Zukanovic and Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top 10.

A battle involving Wall, Zukanovic, McLaughlin, Daniel Jilesen and Chaz Mostert provided the race’s main entertainment, with Wood and Zukanovic both moving through the pack having qualified outside the top 10.

The battle between Jilesen and Mostert ended in contact at Forrest Elbow – the Simpro Falcon tagging the Greg Murphy Racing Commodore as the former squirmed down the inside under brakes.

While Mostert continued largely unaffected, Jilesen lost initial ground having activated the pitlane speed limiter during his half-spin, before retiring on the penultimate lap.

Jilesen’s team-mates Geoff Emery and Tony Bates made door-to-door contact with each other during the race, after Emery had spun wildly through the left-hander at The Chase while holding down 13th.

Irishman Richard Cregan also endured a difficult race – pulling off the circuit at the entry to McPhillamy Park with broken rear-rear suspension.

Taz Douglas, Ash Walsh and Drew Russell were all non-starters, with the two Falcon drivers having crashed heavily in qualifying this morning.

See below for the full race result