Queensland V8 Supercars: Jamie Whincup wins race one

The championship leader made a quick getaway from pole before the biggest talking point of the race occurred behind him.

Going into Turn 3 for the first time, Triple 8 team-mate Craig Lowndes had been on a charge from fifth on the grid and pulled off what appeared to be an overly aggressive move on third-placed Mark Winterbottom.

Lowndes looked poised to displace the FPR Ford driver, but he ran too hot into the corner and nudged Winterbottom into an unsuspecting Fabian Coulthard, who was punted off the circuit and lost several positions.

The incident will be investigated after the race.

The head of the field ran line astern up to the half-time interval, with Whincup and Scott McLaughlin maintaining their starting positions, and Lowndes and Winterbottom third and fourth respectively.

The frontrunners slotted back into their positions after the mid-race restart, but this time around Whincup was forced to hold off a charging McLaughlin who harassed the race-leader until the chequered flag - the gap between the pair never more than a second.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Winterbottom finally managed to exchange places with Lowndes on lap 27 to take the final podium position.

James Courtney crossed the line fifth after a fairly muted race, followed by Will Davison and Jason Bright.

Garth Tander filtered his way from 19th on the grid to claim eighth, while Coulthard could not make similar progress through the pack and was mired in the midfield after the first-lap incident. He finished 11th.

Results - 40 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                           Time/Gap
 1.  Jamie Whincup        Triple 8 Holden            1h12m39.942s
 2.  Scott McLaughlin     GRM Holden                      +0.565s
 3.  Mark Winterbottom    FPR Ford                        +0.821s
 4.  Craig Lowndes        Triple 8 Holden                 +1.132s
 5.  James Courtney       HRT Holden                      +2.145s
 6.  Will Davison         FPR Ford                        +3.030s
 7.  Jason Bright         Brad Jones Holden               +5.645s
 8.  Garth Tander         HRT Holden                      +8.919s
 9.  Alex Davison         Schwerkolt/FPR Ford            +10.475s
10.  James Moffat         Nissan                         +15.879s
11.  Fabian Coulthard     Brad Jones Holden              +17.378s
12.  Shane van Gisbergen  Tekno Holden                   +20.368s
13.  Rick Kelly           Nissan                         +20.947s
14.  Russell Ingall       Walkinshaw/HRT Holden          +22.436s
15.  Todd Kelly           Nissan                         +23.390s
16.  Tim Blanchard        Dick Johnson Ford              +23.930s
17.  Dean Fiore           Dumbrell Holden                +23.998s
18.  David Wall           Britek/BJR Holden              +24.952s
19.  Maro Engel           Erebus Mercedes                +26.700s
20.  Alexandre Premat     GRM Holden                     +27.146s
21.  Tony D'Alberto       D'Alberto Holden               +27.453s
22.  Scott Pye            Dumbrell Holden                +29.122s
23.  Chaz Mostert         Dick Johnson Ford              +31.398s
24.  Tim Slade            Rosenberg/Erebus Mercedes       +1 laps
25.  Michael Caruso       Nissan                          +2 laps
26.  Jonathon Webb        Tekno Holden                    +2 laps

Retirements:

     David Reynolds      Rod Nash/FPR Ford                39 laps
     Lee Holdsworth      Erebus Mercedes                  21 laps