V8 Supercar: Winterbottom stretches points lead with race 4 win

Mark Winterbottom further extended his points tally by claiming the final V8 Supercars race of the Pukekohe weekend.

The championship leader started fourth for the 200-kilometer main event and gained two positions by the time he made his first stop of the day on lap 18 of 69. He then set about eating into Scott McLaughlin's 1.9-second advantage and managed to cut the deficit to just under two tenths as the leaders pitted together on lap 43.

The FPR Ford crew won the pitstop battle and Winterbottom rejoined the action at the front of the field, before edging away to clinch the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy for the best cumulative performance of the weekend.

McLaughlin took a comfortable second place in the Volvo S60 while Chaz Mostert rounded off the podium after duelling hard with Shane van Gisbergen in the opening laps.

The race three winner had Michael Caruso in his mirrors for most of the afternoon and the pair finished fourth and fifth ahead of Jason Bright, who gained 11 places from 17th on the grid.

Craig Lowndes and Tim Slade had a wild race in comparison. The Triple Eight driver found himself starting in the middle of the pack after putting his Holden in the gravel trap at the hairpin in the final moments of qualifying. His race strategy then put him in trouble as he had to yield to those a lap ahead and he finished a dismal 20th, ahead of the front row starting Slade, who suffered from a clutch issue from the start.

Originally on Autosport.com