Brodie Kostecki beats charging Matthew Payne to first Melbourne race win

Brodie Kostecki made the most of his pole position to beat a late charge from Matthew Payne in the first Supercars Championship race of the Formula 1 weekend at Albert Park in Melbourne.

The Dick Johnsson Racing Ford driver made a strong start to claim the lead ahead of Triple Eight driver Broc Feeney who snatched second place from James Golding.

And Golding continued to lose places on the first lap as Payne made his way past for third place.

Grove Racing driver Payne continued his charge forward and claimed second place from Feeney at Turn 14 on the fourth lap with a clean move.

The safety car was called into action on lap seven as Jackson Walls made a mistake and went off into the gravel at Turn 11.

The race resumed after three laps behind the safety car and the restart lap saw Aaron Cameron making a mistake, spinning off from seventh place which 2024 champion Will Brown was quick to snatch.

Brown then tried to pass Cameron Waters for sixth place on the final lap but could not make the move stick and instead lost seventh to Ryan Wood.

Kostecki won the race with less than half a second ahead of Payne while Feeney completed the podium.

Golding, who started on the front row, came home in fourth ahead of reigning champion and Toyota driver Chaz Mostert in fifth.

Waters crossed the finishing line in sixth ahead of Wood and Brown.

The next race starts at 17:30 local time/07:30 CET on Friday.