Jamie Whincup led a Triple Eight Holden one-two in the first of this weekend's three V8 Supercar races at Barbagallo.
The polesitter held the edge throughout the 50-lap event, but came under pressure from his teammate Craig Lowndes in the second half of the race.
Lowndes had run fourth behind Will Davison (FPR Ford) and Steven Johnson (DJR Ford) in the opening stages, before opting to make his pit stop on lap 14 and change just two tires.
Whincup stayed out at the head of the field until lap 28, changing four tires when he came in – and emerged only just ahead of Lowndes, who had been making up ground in the meantime. The two Triple Eight cars ran nose to tail for the rest of the distance, but Whincup had enough in hand to clinch victory. Davison eventually finished 6.7 seconds behind the leaders to complete the podium.
After only qualifying 16th, Stone Brothers Ford driver Shane van Gisbergen produced a charging race to come through to fourth ahead of Johnson, Jason Bright (Brad Jones Holden) and Karl Reindler, as the latter backed up his qualifying breakthrough to take a career-best seventh.
Mark Winterbottom (FPR Ford) beat Rick Kelly (Kelly Holden) and reigning champion James Courtney to eighth in a tough late battle, while Courtney's HRT Holden teammate Garth Tander managed to claw his way up to 13th after only qualifying 23rd.