Jamie Whincup and Sebastien Bourdais have won a shortened Race 22 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Armor All Gold Coast 600 that began with two red flag periods for start-line crashes.

American Grand Am regular Ricky Taylor was lucky to escape unhurt from a horrific crash on the first start that saw the #33 Fujitsu Racing Holden flip down the front straight. The incident was triggered by a slow start from the sister Fujitsu entry of James Hinchcliffe, which set off a chain reaction that also took care of the Tonio Liuzzi-driven Tony D’Alberto Ford and the Simon Pagenaud-driven Lee Holdsworth Ford.

A two-car accident between a stalled Nicolas Minassian (in Fabian Coulthard’s Holden) and fellow Frenchman Franck Montagny (in Karl Reindler’s Holden) on the subsequent restart caused a second red flag, requiring a third start some 50 minutes later than that originally scheduled.

Bourdais battled early leader Mika Salo in the first stint, swapping places with the Finn on several occasions in wild exchanges across the Turn 1/2/3 chicane kerbing. The Salo entry would crash out of contention on Will Davison’s out-lap following the pitstops, however, leaving Whincup with a clear lead.

Jonathon Webb subsequently provided the most resistance to Whincup’s march towards victory, eventually taking the chequered flag just 0.46s adrift in second as the race reached its time cut-off after 79 of the 102 scheduled laps. Starting from fourth, Webb’s co-driver Marc Lieb did a sterling job in the opening stint, comfortable running behind the Salo/Bourdais battle in third after clearing Graham Rahal’s Jack Daniel’s Holden.

Mark Winterbottom took over the car he shared with Will Power in just 10th position before charging through to finish third. Power had pitted a full seven laps later than the Whincup/Bourdais entry after failing to here repeated radio calls to pit.

The time-certain nature of the race ensured that the majority of the co-drivers went past the mandatory minimum lap requirement in order to turn it into a one-stop encounter.

The Garth Tander/Ryan Briscoe, Tim Slade/David Brabham and Craig Lowndes/Richard Lyons entries filled fourth through sixth at the flag having all used a Lap 16 Safety Car to pit for a splash of fuel – giving them a fuel-in-hand advantage once the proper pitstop cycle was complete.

James Courtney/Darren Turner ran as high as second with 25 laps to go before dropping to seventh with a suspected broken rear anti-roll bar.

The Rick Kelly/Graham Rahal and Russell Ingall/Peter Dumbreck combinations finish eighth and ninth respectively, while the Shane van Gisbergen/Jeroen Bleekemolen Ford completed the top 10 having switched to the two-stop strategy on Lap 16 after receiving an early drive-through for jumping the Turn 1 kerb.

Several others, including Lucas di Grassi and Boris Said, also fell foul of Race Control who deemed that they were “blatantly overusing” the kerbing in the absence of the electronic sensor system that had been turned off after Friday practice.

The David Reynolds/Nick Heidfeld entry was a late addition to the considerable retirements list after the Australian damaged The Bottle-O Ford’s steering on Tander’s Commodore while trying to take fifth position with less than 15 laps to go.

The Steve Owen/Boris Said Ford retired with power steering problems after 40 laps, joining the Tim Blanchard/Marco Andretti Holden and James Moffat/Peter Kox Ford on the sidelines. Andretti had found himself with nowhere to go on lap 20 when he came across the Kox-driven Ford sticking out of the tyre barrier at the exit of Turn 11.

The Kox incident caused the second Safety Car of the race, with the full course yellows conveniently making their third and final appearance to wipe-out Whincup’s six second lead when debris was spotted on the circuit with little over 20 laps remaining.

The Lap 16 Safety Car had earlier been called to retrieve the Gianni Morbidelli driven #12 Jim Beam Ford from the Turn 14 tyre barrier after the Italian received a bump from Jamie Campbell-Walter.

Team Hiflex has confirmed that the D’Alberto/Liuzzi Ford will not return for tomorrow’s second race, while the #33 Fujitsu Racing Holden is also in doubt.

See below for the full race result

See below for the updated championship standings (Top 28 only)

See below for Speedcafe.com’s Armor All Gold Coast 600 Race Guide