De Pasquale beats SVG in Race 24, Whincup 25th

Anton De Pasquale has claimed his third win in five starts at Sydney Motorsport Park.

De Pasquale crossed the line eight seconds clear of Shane van Gisbergen, who opened up his series lead to Jamie Whincup to 418 points.

Whincup crossed the line 25th and last after he was forced to pit late on for a suspected puncture.

James Courtney benefited from a smart strategy call to record his first podium since Darwin 2020.

The threat of rain, which affected qualifying, didn't materialise in the race, which began in greasy conditions.

Van Gisbergen and Bryce Fullwood rounded up De Pasquale through Turn 1.

Intent on not letting van Gisbergen get away, De Pasquale muscled past Fullwood at Turn 2 and set off after the series leader.

On lap 2, De Pasquale cleared van Gisbergen at Turn 8 and set about creating a gap.

Of 26 starters, 14 started on Soft rubber, with 12 on Hards.

Hard-shod van Gisbergen fell away from the rear of De Pasquale and fell into the clutches of Andre Heimgartner.

Fullwood, who started on the Hard tyre, dropped down the field and stopped from 18th on lap 5.

Whincup followed suit on lap 7, with Hards bolted onto the #88 Red Bull Ampol Commodore.

By lap 7, De Pasquale’s lead over van Gisbergen was 3.5s, with Heimgartner keeping a watching brief of the #97 Red Bull Ampol Commodore.

By lap 12, the margin was 6.5s, with James Courtney and Will Davison joining Heimgartner in the chasing pack behind van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen took on four Hard tyres on lap 13, leaving Heimgartner with clear air, albeit 8.9s behind De Pasquale.

The pole-sitter continued to extend his margin over Heimgartner; by lap 17, it was 10.6s.

The gap to van Gisbergen, meanwhile, hovered at 55 seconds.

To lap 19, all drivers who started on Soft tyres - sans Tickford Racing trio Thomas Randle, Cameron Waters and Jack Le Brocq - hadn’t stopped.

That was, until, Courtney and Davison stopped at the end of the lap to take on Hard tyres.

One by one, the Soft-shod runners stopped. On lap 22, De Pasquale’s margin over Heimgartner was 14.7s, with van Gisbergen 50.8s from the lead.

The championship story took a major swing on lap 22 when Whincup was forced into the lane with a suspected left rear puncture.

Whincup crossed the line 81 seconds from the lead, with his hopes of a fairytale eighth title taking their biggest dent yet.

Seconds later, Heimgartner stopped, leaving De Pasquale on his own.

De Pasquale finally stopped on lap 23 to take on Hard tyres, entering the lane with a 49-second lead over van Gisbergen.

He retained the lead, but the margin to van Gisbergen - who had completed 10 laps on his Softs - was less than two seconds.

Courtney and Davison were third and fourth ahead of Scott Pye and Will Brown, with a slow stop dropping Heimgartner to seventh.

De Pasquale quickly opened up the margin to 3.1s with seven laps remaining, with Courtney 10.2s from the rear of van Gisbergen.

With Whincup down the field, van Gisbergen was ordered not to take any risks and fell back from De Pasquale.

With three laps remaining, De Pasquale’s lead had blown out to 6.2s.

The most spirited battle was for seventh, with Hard-shod Heimgartner defending from Soft-shod Mostert.

Heimgartner was cited for blocking, but Mostert’s advances failed to unseat the #7 NED Whisky Mustang.

De Pasquale took the chequered flag 8.3s to the good, with van Gisbergen a lonely second, 9.2s ahead of Courtney.

Davison was just 0.3s from equalling Dick Johnson's tally of 65 career podiums.

Pye, Brown, Heimgartner, Mostert, Percat and Mark Winterbottom rounded out the top 10.

The final race of the ARMOR ALL Sydney SuperNight will commence at 7:30pm AEDT.