Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes has taken back-to-back victories after winning the second race of this weekend's Australian V8 Supercar event at Winton Motor Raceway.
Lowndes ran second in the early laps and despite an issue at his pit stop and another when a lapped car exited the pits, was able to run at the front all day and made the best of the conditions to take the lead on lap 45 and lead the rest of the way.
After dramas in Saturday's race, Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom had a much better race on Sunday. Winterbottom also spent most of the race near the front, just a few seconds behind Lowndes at the finish as he was for most of the race.
Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander finished third just ahead of Paul Dumbrell and Will Davison despite running most of the race with a heavily-damaged bonnet after making contact after the race restarted on lap 23 following a safety car for the stranded car of Lee Holdsworth.
Dumbrell's result was his best of the season but it could have been even better. When the safety car came out on lap 20, he had a 17.8-second lead over second-placed driver Craig Lowndes after running new soft tires at the start of the race, but switched to the harder tires at the stop and couldn't duplicate the pace (and lost all his margin too).
James Courtney finished sixth, while Rick Kelly finished seventh just ahead of a pair of hard-charging drivers who switched to the soft tire late in the race, David Reynolds and Marcus Marshall charging through from 24th and 25th after their stops to eighth and ninth, Marshall setting a new lap record along the way.
Though Dumbrell lost out on a possible win when the safety car came out, it was series leader Jamie Whincup who was the biggest loser at the pit stops under the safety car. Running third just behind teammate Lowndes at the time, he was forced to stop partly in the fast lane as Lowndes made his stop.
The situation was compounded firstly by Lowndes overshooting his marks, time being lost as Lowndes' car was pushed back, and then by Winterbottom being unable to pull out of his bay as he couldn't maneuver around the tires that had just come off Lowndes' car.
With most of the field pitting under safety car, he restarted 25th, and being on the standard tire struggled to make much ground on a track known for its difficulty to pass other cars on, eventually finishing 13th.
Despite his poor result in the second race, Whincup's advantage over second in the championship remained quite similar to what it was after Hamilton, 114 points ahead of Will Davison.
But a DNF for Lee Holdsworth means he drops to 270 points behind Whincup in fourth, with Steven Johnson up to third 231 points behind despite finishing both races outside the top ten.
RESULTS:
Pos Driver Make Time
1. Craig Lowndes Ford 1:37:06.3464
2. Mark Winterbottom Ford + 2.5120
3. Garth Tander Holden + 19.0707
4. Paul Dumbrell Holden + 20.7570
5. Will Davison Holden + 21.1122
6. James Courtney Ford + 24.1522
7. Rick Kelly Holden + 44.8677
8. David Reynolds Holden + 45.1154
9. Marcus Marshall Ford + 45.6042
10. Jason Bargwanna Holden + 45.6547
11. Russell Ingall Holden + 47.3323
12. Shane van Gisbergen Ford + 48.2278
13. Jamie Whincup Ford + 48.7165
14. Tony D'Alberto Holden + 58.0427
15. Alex Davison Ford + 1:02.8351
16. Steven Richards Ford + 1:04.9679
17. Tim Slade Holden + 1:06.8295
18. Dale Wood Holden + 1:07.0190
19. Jack Perkins Holden + 1:11.6535
20. Greg Murphy Holden + 1:13.6246
21. Steven Johnson Ford + 1:17.5758
22. Michael Patrizi Ford + 1:19.0358
23. Cameron McConville Holden + 1:37.2308
24. Todd Kelly Holden + 1 lap
25. Dean Fiore Holden + 1 lap
26. Jason Richards Holden + 1 lap
27. Michael Caruso Holden + 6 laps
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Make Laps
Fabian Coulthard Ford 46
Lee Holdsworth Holden 18
Jason Bright Ford 11