V8 Supercar: Van Gisbergen/Webb win Surfers Paradise leg one

Shane van Gisbergen and Jonathon Webb claimed a commanding victory for Tekno Autosports in the first race of the V8 Supercars Gold Coast 600 on the streets of Surfers Paradise.

With the race started by the endurance co-drivers, Webb had converted van Gisbergen's pole position into a 13-second lead by the time the first pit stops began at the end of lap 34 of the 102-lap event.

Van Gisbergen controlled much of the rest of the race, although a single safety car intervention with less than 20 laps to go reduced an advantage of six seconds.

Lapped traffic directly behind van Gisbergen's Holden at the restart protected him from the pursuing David Reynolds and Craig Lowndes, and the New Zealander took the checkered flag with 1.6s in hand.

The Prodrive Racing Australia Ford that Reynolds shared with Dean Canto climbed from fifth to second through the first pitstop phase, and Reynolds kept it there for most of the remaining distance except for a brief spell behind the Nissan of Rick Kelly after the final round of stops.

Once title contender Lowndes also cleared Kelly, Reynolds had to defend second all the way to the flag but held on ahead of the Triple Eight Holden.

Both Reynolds and Lowndes made inroads into the championship lead of Mark Winterbottom after the Prodrive Ford racer's hopes of a good finish ended within seconds of him taking over his car from Steve Owen.

Winterbottom was released into the path of Garth Tander, smacking into the side of the Holden and rebounding almost into the crew servicing Lowndes in the pitbox ahead.

Requiring a long time in the pits for repairs before then serving a drive-through penalty for the unsafe release, Winterbottom finished 14 laps down.

That was one lap ahead of reigning champion Jamie Whincup, whose co-driver Paul Dumbrell hit trouble just four laps in, making separate contact with Taz Douglas ahead of him and then Canto behind.

Another notable entry in trouble was the Volvo of Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Premat. After McLaughlin placed it on the front row, Premat did well to stay with Webb for much of the first stint but sustained attacks on the chicane tire stacks caused significant front-end damage.

A long pit stop to replace the splitter dropped McLaughlin out of the top 10, and he later headed to the garage with a power steering issue, ending up 11 laps adrift.

There was a fraught battle between Holden Racing Team drivers Tander and James Courtney in which the pair made contact on more than one occasion – to the exasperation of team boss Adrian Burgess.

After Courtney – in his first race back after injuries sustained in a freak incident at Sydney Motorsport Park in August – had got ahead during the second pit stops, Tander forced his way back through at the safety car restart to finish fourth. Behind them, Nick Percat and Oliver Gavin had a strong drive to sixth.

RESULTS - 102 LAPS:

Originally on Autosport.com