Lap by Lap: Race 18

The first of today's races requires teams to run both compounds of tyres over 100km – 35 laps – at Hidden Valley. It will be a Holden versus Ford battle off the startline, with factory team drivers HRT's James Courtney starting from pole and Pepsi Max Crew FPR's Mark Winterbottom alongside.

Second row is shared by Will Davison and Fabian Coulthard, with yesterday's winner Jamie Whincup on the third row with Tim Slade. 

Fiore and Ingall are the only drivers starting the race on the soft tyre, down in 17th and 23rd.

Talk of an unsual noise from Whincup's car during the warm up lap. 

Great start from Courtney, leading into turn one. Coulthard pressuring Will Davison for third. 

Todd Kelly has passed Lowndes for p10 and there's a battle with van Gisbergen, Slade and Reynolds for seventh.

L3 Ingall already up from 23 to 15 on soft tyres.

Bright's dropped down to 15th after starting in 11th.

McLaughlin has already pitted on L4 for soft tyres. 

Webb passes Whincup for fifth on L6. 

Bad Sportmanship flag for Todd Kelly for blocking. 

Winterbottom passes Courtney for the lead at turn one, L7.

Fiore and Ingall have made up plenty of positions starting on the soft tyre – Fiore to 7th from 17th, Ingall 11th from 23. They've completed seven laps on the soft tyre – how long will they last? Fiore's recorded a 1min11.5080 while leader Winterbottom (on hards) has completed a 1min11.6279.

L9 Will Davison has just gotten past Courtney – both Pepsi Max cars lead the field.

McLaughlin's last lap on the soft tyre was one second faster than leader Winterbottom's last lap. 

L11 Engel has pitted for soft tyres. 

Fiore is up to fourth and looks about to pass Courtney. 

L12 Whincup just on to soft tyres. Fiore has overtaken Courtney. 

Reynolds, Lowndes, Slade and Todd Kelly in for softs, L13.

Reynolds out behind Whincup. Moffat and Premat also pitted for softs then. 

Fiore is into second and is 0.4sec faster than Winterbottom after 13 laps on softs. 

McLaughlin has passed Will Davison to 14th. But will the strategy of pitting early work out for McLaughlin come the end of the race?

L15 Winterbottom on softs, comes out of the pits ahead of his teammate. Fiore is leading on the soft tyre.

Lowndes has just set the fastest lap on softs – a 1min10.2146. Lowndes in 19th. 

Wall, Holdsworth and Alex Davison in for soft tyres, L15.

Tander pitting L17. He was up to sixth from starting 15th. He exits in front of Bright in 20th. Fiore still leads, with a 5sec lead over Ingall. 

Caruso in pitlane – there are only two cars still out there with hard tyres on – van Gisbergen and Pye. 

L18 Ingall and van Gisbergen in the pits. 

L20 Lowndes on the inside of Reynolds. 

Fiore is now on hard tyres, in 18th behind Tander.

L23 Winterbottom leads now, with Will Davison and Courtney behind. Whincup and Lowndes inside the top five. 

Pye loses a handful of positions after going around. Was he assisted? 

Under investigation incident with Webb, Slade and Pye at turn five.

L29 Lowndes battling with Courtney for third. They are behind the Pepsi Max Falcons – no change at the top. Can Lowndes fight back and get on the podium after starting this race in 10th? 

Five laps to go. 

Slade into the back of Premat. Neither went of the track, but looked like it could have done damage. 

L33 Courtney through on Will Davison for second, Davison also vulnerable to Lowndes, who is now on track for a podum finish. 

L34 – can Courtney hold off Lowndes? Looking close. 

Lowndes nudges Courtney – the #22 driver does well to hang onto it. 

And Winterbottom takes his first win in over 12 months – followed home by Courtney, Lowndes, Will Davison, Whincup, Webb, Coulthard, van Gisbergen, Tander and Reynolds. 

Click here for full race results. 

The second race of the day – Race 19 – is underway at 3.45pm local time (4.15pm EST).