Photo: Red Bull Racing Australia

Jamie Whincup romps to Race 1 victory in Ipswich

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Jamie Whincup took victory in the first race of the weekend at the Queensland Raceway in Ipswich, leading home Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mate Craig Lowndes after passing his team-mate mid-race, and as a result closes to 72 points from Mark Winterbottom in the drivers’ standings.

Lowndes had qualified on pole position, just under a tenth of a second ahead of Whincup in second, and the Volvo S60 of Scott McLaughlin in third.

At the start, Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian Coulthard got the jump and moved up to third ahead McLaughlin, but the fellow Kiwi was able to retake the position down into Turn 1 on the following lap.

McLaughlin then briefly threatened Whincup’s Triple Eight Holden Commodore for second, but as the race drew on, Whincup and Lowndes started to pull away from the pack, with McLaughlin settling into a safe third ahead of Coulthard and the Holden Racing Team entry of James Courtney.

Championship leader Mark Winterbottom had qualified in seventh position in the Ford Performance Racing Falcon FG, and made up just one spot in the race, passing the Erebus Mercedes-Benz E63 of former team-mate Will Davison into Turn 3 on the 18th lap of the race as Davison ran wide into the corner.

On lap 23, Whincup launched an attack on his team-mate into Turn 1 and took the lead. Lowndes retook the position into Turn 2, but he would only stay back ahead for one corner, with Whincup able to retake the lead at Turn 3 and began to pull away.

There was drama for two of the Nissans, with Todd Kelly suffering a front-left puncture on lap 28, and then with the Norton Security backed entry of James Moffat experiencing a rear-left puncture three laps later.

Winterbottom had closed up on the tail of Courtney’s Holden during the final laps of the race, getting past the Holden into Turn 1 on the final lap, but the 2010 champion was able to get the switchback into Turn 2 and retook fifth position, with Winterbottom and Davison held at bay to the finish.

Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander finished in eighth ahead of the Rod Nash Racing Ford of David Reynolds, with Tekno Autosports’ Shane Van Gisbergen completing the top ten.

Race 24 gets underway at 16:30 local time, with the Volvo of Scott McLaughlin having qualified on pole position ahead of the Nissan of Michael Caruso, with the Triple Eight Holdens of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes starting from the second row.