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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 |
