Photo: Triple Eight

Jamie Whincup heads Craig Lowndes to Triple Eight 1-2 in New Zealand

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Jamie Whincup completed his best weekend of the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship season by winning the final race in New Zealand, with team-mate Craig Lowndes making it a vital second from tenth position on the grid, completing a Triple Eight Race Engineering 1-2 .

Whincup started second, but got the jump off the line on pole sitter Scott McLaughlin’s Volvo. The reigning champion was on his own from then on, claiming a second victory in one weekend for the first time this year.

Team-mate Lowndes made a strong charge from tenth on the grid after his team had raced against the clock during the night to repair his damaged Holden Commodore, following a high-speed crash in the previous race on Saturday, caused by a puncture.

Lowndes gained on Whincup towards the end of the race but finished four seconds behind his team-mate at the chequered flag.

The first part of the race saw Volvo Polestar Racing driver McLaughlin in second place behind Whincup, with the Fords of Prodrive’s David Reynolds and DJR’s Scott Pye in third and fourth respectively.

The first pit stops came under the safety car after Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport’s Nick Percat was left stranded in the middle of the track with a broken front suspension following an incident.

The stop saw McLaughlin dropping one spot to Reynolds and a further two spots to Pye, as well as Nissan Motorsport driver Michael Caruso in the second stop.

Pye completed his best V8 Supercars Championship result so far by claiming the final podium spot, getting ahead of Rod Nash Racing driver Reynolds in the final pit stop.

Reynolds, who had won the second race of the weekend on Saturday, finished fourth ahead of Caruso and McLaughlin.

Championship leader Mark Winterbottom had yet another troubled race, after being turned around on the first lap, dropping him to last position. The race continued with incidents for Winterbottom who managed to climb back to 11th position.

Fabian Coulthard crossed the line in seventh for Brad Jones Racing ahead of CS Racing’s Lee Holdsworth and Tekno Autosports’ Shane van Gisbergen, with Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander rounding out the top ten.

Winterbottom keeps the championship lead, but with Reynolds closing the gap from 287 points to 239 in second, and Lowndes just one point further behind with two race weekends remaining of the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship season.

Next up is the Phillip Island SuperSprint on November 20-22nd.