Will Davison wins race one in Hamilton

Ford Performance Racing driver Will Davison continued with his dominant run in recent races, winning Round 5 of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship at the Hamilton street circuit in New Zealand from sixth on the grid.

Will Davison was fastest in qualifying but only sixth in the top ten shootout, which saw Garth Tander pole position in the Holden Racing Team Commodore.

Shane van Gisbergen, as the highest qualifying Ford in second place, took the lead at the start, but lost ground after he was hit by the Rod Nash Racing Ford Falcon of David Reynolds. A further incident for the local driver with reigning champion Jamie Whincup’s Triple Eight Holden at Turn 2 saw van Gisbergen’s challenge effectively over, dropping down the order to finish in 22nd place with a bent steering arm.

Tander had retaken the lead from Reynolds, with the Holden driver closely followed by the FPR Falcon of Will Davison now in second. On lap 27, Davison passed Tander at Turn 1 to take the lead and started to pull away until the safety car was called on 39 to recover Alexandre Prémat’s Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden.

Davison held on at the restart to take the win, whilst Tander was now underpressure to Jamie Whincup’s Holden Commodore, who took second from Tander, passing at Turn 2 with just four laps to go.

Davison takes his third win of the season in just five races and now has a 30 point lead in the standings over reigning champion Jamie Whincup.