Scott Pye secures maiden Supercars win in rain-hit third Melbourne race

Scott Pye secured a maiden Supercars victory for himself and the newly formed Walkinshaw Andretti United team in the third race of the weekend in Melbourne that was hit by rain.

Pye started third but made his way into the lead early on after a strong start and capitalised on a mistake from pole sitter Scott McLaughlin who ran wide while leading and dropped to fifth.

Previous race winner Jamie Whincup was close to Pye throughout the race but was unable to get past.

The race was declared wet by the stewards with nine laps left as a light rain increased in strength.

This saw number of drivers heading into the pits for a change to wet tyres, including front runners McLaughlin and championship leader Shane van Gisbergen.

The gamle proved to be wrong as the rain decreased and a dry line started to form on the track again. McLaughlin dropped down to finish 15th for DJR Team Penske while van Gisbergen crossed the line in 13th.

The tricky conditions almost ended the race for Pye who made a mistake with just two laps remaining. The Holden driver was able to keep his Holden on track, but had Whincup and Brad Jones Racing driver Nick Percat right behind him for the last couple of laps.

Pye was able to keep the lead and won the race just three tenths ahead of Whincup and a second ahead of Percat.

Pye’s team-mate James Courtney crossed the line in fourth, despite receiving a five-second penalty for an incident with Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Craig Lowndes earlier in the race. Lowndes recovered as well to finish fifth behind Courtney.

Mark Winterbottom came home in seventh for Tickford Racing while Will Davison rounded off the top eight for 23Red Racing.