Shane van Gisbergen charged from fifth on the grid to score his first victory for Red Bull in the opening V8 Supercars heat at Albert Park.

The Kiwi snuck down the inside of Chaz Mostert at Turn 1, before making his way around a warring Fabian Coulthard and Mark Winterbottom later in the opening lap.

A Safety Car intervention followed to recover the Nissan of Todd Kelly, which pulled off on the front straight in a cloud of smoke.

Pole-sitter Jamie Whincup was able to fend off team-mate Van Gisbergen on the double-file restart, but proved unable to hang on for long.

Locking a left-front as he defended into Turn 13, Whincup ran fractionally wide, allowing Van Gisbergen to take the place.

Just 0.5s separated the Red Bull duo at the flag as Whincup tried his utmost to redeem his error in the closing stages.

The race was eventually called a lap short of its scheduled 12 lap duration due to the lengthy early Safety Car.

Mostert lost third to Coulthard on the restart, but regained the place with a clean move on his Ford rival into Turn 3 on lap 9.

Coulthard had earlier spun Mostert’s team-mate Winterbottom at the high speed Turn 11 as the pair battled for third on the opening lap.

Winterbottom found himself facing backwards after turning in on the DJR Team Penske Ford and eventually finished down in 21st.

Scott Pye drove from 10th on the grid to fifth having survived an opening turn tangle with Jason Bright that spun the Team BOC Holden, which was subsequently parked with damage.

Garth Tander carved his way from 15th to sixth ahead of Craig Lowndes, James Courtney, Scott McLaughlin and Cameron Waters.

The second of four V8 Supercars races for the weekend will take place from 1820 this evening.

Result: V8 Supercars Race 1, Albert Park

1

Red Bull Racing Australia

Shane Van Gisbergen

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:24.09

2

Red Bull Racing Australia

Jamie Whincup

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:24.61

3

Supercheap Auto Racing

Chaz Mostert

Ford Falcon FG/X

11

26:26.71

4

DJR Team Penske

Fabian Coulthard

Ford Falcon FG/X

11

26:27.73

5

DJR Team Penske

Scott Pye

Ford Falcon FG/X

11

26:28.63

6

Holden Racing Team

Garth Tander

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:29.15

7

Team Vortex

Craig Lowndes

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:30.46

8

Holden Racing Team

James Courtney

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:31.52

9

Wilson Security Racing GRM

Scott McLaughlin

Volvo S60

11

26:32.53

10

Prodrive Racing Australia

Cameron Waters

Ford Falcon FG/X

11

26:33.14

11

Nissan Motorsport

Michael Caruso

Nissan Altima

11

26:33.57

12

Freightliner Racing

Tim Slade

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:33.93

13

Nissan Motorsport

Rick Kelly

Nissan Altima

11

26:35.40

14

Superblack Racing

Chris Pither

Ford Falcon FG/X

11

26:36.44

15

Preston Hire Racing

Lee Holdsworth

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:36.86

16

Team Darrell Lea STIX

Will Davison

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:37.96

17

Erebus Motorsport Penrite

David Reynolds

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:40.07

18

Wilson Security Racing GRM

James Moffat

Volvo S60

11

26:42.38

19

GB Galvanizing Racing

Dale Wood

Nissan Altima

11

26:42.91

20

Team Cooldrive

Tim Blanchard

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:43.42

21

The Bottle-O Racing Team

Mark Winterbottom

Ford Falcon FG/X

11

26:43.82

22

LD Motorsports

Andre Heimgartner

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:46.64

23

Plus Fitness Racing

Aaren Russell

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:48.83

24

LD Motorsports

Nick Percat

Holden Commodore VF

11

26:58.91

DNF

carsales Racing

Todd Kelly

Nissan Altima

1

02:15.18

DNF

Team BOC

Jason Bright

Holden Commodore VF