Craig Lowndes claimed victory in the second V8 Supercars race in Adelaide while Scott McLaughlin achieved a podium finish for Volvo after holding off a determined Jamie Whincup.
Triple Eight driver Lowndes made the perfect getaway from pole and beat fellow front-row starter McLaughlin into the first corner.
As Lowndes pulled away, teammate Whincup ran nose-to-tail with the Volvo S60 of McLaughlin and the pair exchanged places twice on lap two before the defending champion came out on top.
Whincup then began to chip away at Lowndes’ advantage and reduced it to 0.8 seconds before adopting a similar strategy to the one that resulted in victory in the first encounter of the weekend.
Pitting earlier than the rest of the field on lap five of 39 in an attempt to get the jump on his teammate was not as successful this time around as a faulty wheel gun lost Whincup time and dropped him well down the order.
An incident involving James Courtney and Lee Holdsworth on lap 10 would prove beneficial, however, as debris from their coming together — in which Courtney lost his passenger door — led to the safety car being deployed two laps later.
With the front-runners — including race leader Lowndes — taking advantage of the caution period, Whincup rose up the order to fourth on the restart before soon picking off Mark Winterbottom for third.
In a repeat of the earlier stages of the race, McLaughlin was forced to fend off Whincup and the gap between the Volvo and Holden was never more than a second during the final dozen laps.
As they fought hard for second, Lowndes continued to extend his lead and went on to claim an emphatic victory, but who would take the next step on the podium was undecided until the last corner of the final lap.
A determined Whincup had barged his way past McLaughlin in the dying seconds of the race, but the GRM Volvo driver never gave up and shot past the five-time title winner as they came onto the pit straight.
McLaughlin finished just 0.8sec ahead to give the Volvo S60 a maiden V8 Supercars podium on its debut weekend.
Winterbottom held on to fourth while Fabian Coulthard produced a stellar performance to claim fifth, having started 16th on the grid, ahead of Chaz Mostert who put aside his lap one incident in the first race to take sixth.
Garth Tander and Michael Caruso battled to seventh and eighth respectively, and Todd Kelly held off Will Davison after the safety car period to take ninth.
Results - 39 laps:Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Craig Lowndes Triple Eight Holden 56m12.9270s
2. Scott McLaughlin GRM Volvo +4.7327s
3. Jamie Whincup Triple Eight Holden +5.5509s
4. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford +14.7951s
5. Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Holden +15.0202s
6. Chaz Mostert FPR Ford +15.3238s
7. Garth Tander HRT Holden +15.6715s
8. Michael Caruso Nissan +24.5559s
9. Todd Kelly Nissan +25.2735s
10. Will Davison Erebus Mercedes +25.5190s
11. Rick Kelly Nissan +26.3825s
12. James Moffat Nissan +28.3505s
13. Russell Ingall Dumbrell Holden +28.7089s
14. Tim Slade Rosenberg/HRT Holden +29.6268s
15. Nick Percat Walkinshaw/HRT Holden +34.6730s
16. Shane van Gisbergen Tekno Holden +35.0199s
17. Lee Holdsworth Erebus Mercedes +35.7806s
18. James Courtney HRT Holden +37.5537s
19. David Reynolds Rod Nash/FPR Ford +38.0624s
20. Scott Pye Dick Johnson Ford +39.8751s
21. Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden +45.8708s
22. Jack Perkins Schwerkolt/FPR Ford +46.9306s
23. Robert Dahlgren GRM Volvo +48.7873s
24. Dale Wood Britek/BJR Holden +1m19.2381s
Retirements:
David Wall Dick Johnson Ford 37 laps
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