Fabian Coulthard snatched victory from Mark Winterbottom to give Brad Jones Racing a clean sweep of the Symmons Plains V8 Supercars weekend.
Winterbottom had taken pole ahead of Coulthard and kept his Ford Performance Racing Falcon in front of the Holden for most of the race, albeit with the Kiwi on his bumper throughout.
An enormous head-on crash for Scott Pye at Turn 2 late on brought out the safety car. The rookie, who had been suffering with fading brakes, was unhurt.
The restart gave Coulthard fresh impetus, and with four laps to go, he surged down the inside into the Turn 4 hairpin and took the lead.
Winterbottom tried to retaliate but his left front tyre burst within sight of the line, which the Ford man felt was a legacy of contact with Coulthard. He held on to second.
The resurgent James Courtney got back on the podium for Holden Racing Team after jumping Jamie Whincup off the line.
As Courtney’s tyres went off near the end, he resisted big pressure from Whincup and race two winner Jason Bright, who got between them by going right around the outside of Whincup at the hairpin on the final lap.
Will Davison completed the top six, followed by Jonathon Webb, Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen.
Race two runner-up Garth Tander could only manage 10th after qualifying back in 13th.
He finished ahead of Craig Lowndes’ “spluttering” Triple 8 Holden as the pre-event championship leader’s tough weekend concluded with an 11th place.
Results - 42 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Holden 42m20.8286s
2. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford + 2.3675s
3. James Courtney HRT Holden + 2.7774s
4. Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden + 2.9615s
5. Jamie Whincup Triple 8 Holden + 3.2493s
6. Will Davison FPR Ford + 3.4900s
7. Jonathon Webb Tekno Holden + 4.5053s
8. Scott McLaughlin GRM Holden + 4.6116s
9. Shane van Gisbergen Tekno Holden + 5.1716s
10. Garth Tander HRT Holden + 5.3883s
11. Craig Lowndes Triple 8 Holden + 8.6000s
12. Alex Davison Schwerkolt/FPR Ford + 8.6640s
13. Lee Holdsworth Erebus Mercedes + 9.2724s
14. Alexandre Premat GRM Holden + 9.7247s
15. James Moffat Nissan + 11.9777s
16. Rick Kelly Nissan + 12.4068s
17. Michael Caruso Nissan + 12.8354s
18. Tim Slade Rosenberg/Erebus Mercedes + 13.5734s
19. David Wall Britek/BJR Holden + 13.8840s
20. Jonny Reid DJR Ford + 15.3473s
21. Dean Fiore Dumbrell Holden + 16.8068s
22. Tim Blanchard DJR Ford + 1 lap
23. Maro Engel Erebus Mercedes + 1 lap
24. David Reynolds Rod Nash/FPR Ford + 1 lap
25. Tony D'Alberto D'Alberto Holden + 1 lap
26. Russell Ingall Walkinshaw/HRT Holden + 5 laps
Retirements:
Scott Pye Dumbrell Holden 32 laps
Todd Kelly Nissan 20 laps
