Lap by Lap: Race 21

The second at final race of the Sucrogen Townsville 400 is about to get underway. Another 200km, 70-lap race today, and Mark Winterbottom is on ARMOR ALL Pole Position, with Scott McLaughlin starting alongside. 

Some surprises in Qualifying, after a late red flag caught many out. Saturday pole qualifier Shane van Gisbergen (VIP Commodore) was 21st, Jason Bright (BOC Commodore) 17th, Jamie Whincup (Red Bull Racing Australia Commodore) 15th, and Fabian Coulthard (Lockwood Commodore) only 11th.

The entire field is starting on hard tyres. Less than two minutes until race start. 

Winterbottom says there's no choice but to run 42 laps on the soft tyre, because this is also a fuel economy race.

Warm up lap about to commence.

Great start from Mark Winterbottom and Tander aggressive off the line. Van Gisbergen around at the back. McLaughlin dropped down to fourth. 

It's Winterbottom, Reynolds, Tander, McLaughlin, Lowndes, Will Davison, D'Alberto, Premat, Courtney, Coulthard. Whincup still in 15th. 

L2 and Engel is in the Erebus Motorsport V8 garage. 

Lowndes runs wide and loses a spot to Will Davison. 

L4 Tander's around Reynolds for p2.

McLaughlin also by Reynolds. 

L5 Bright's tagged Michael Cruso at turn two, turned the Norton Hornet around. Russell Ingall's made up eight spots already, to 18th. 

Incident at turn two L1 to be investigated. 

Reynolds into the garage. 

L7 Whincup inside the top 10 already and passed Lowndes for ninth.

L8 Black flag Bright for his tagging Caruso. Pit lane penalty. 

Lee Holdsworth stopped on the inside of the track. 

Lowndes' car an "oversteering pig". 

L9 Lowndes into the pits. 

L9 Safety Car. Lowndes onto softs. 

Tander, D'Alberto, Courtney, Webb, Slade in. Webb has two sets of soft tyres, having only run one lap on softs yesterday.

Wall stacking – behind Slade. Ingall, van Gisbergen, Bright, Alex Davison also pitted. 

Blanchard has also changed to soft Dunlop tyres. 

Reynolds car with the bonnet up – engine misfire.

Restart on L12. Winterbottom leads McLaughlin, Will Davison, Premat, Coulthard, Whincup Mostert, Rick Kelly. Garth Tander in ninth is the first driver in the queue on soft tyres.

L13 Tander already passed Kelly.

Tander up to seventh and another fastest lap – 1min14.6184. 

L14 Wall into the wall, after contact between him and Todd Kelly. 

L15 D'Alberto (Soft tyres) up the inside of Whincup (hard) for seventh.

L16 Tander past Premat and into fourth, behind Will Davison. Winterbottom and McLaughlin still first and second.

L18 Tander past W Davison for third. D'Alberto and Lowndes are also behind Will on softs. 

Mechanical black flag shown for car 21 Wall. 

L19 Tander around McLaughlin and makes contact with the wall.

Investigation into the incident with Wall and Todd Kelly.

L22 No further action after the incident on lap one, from Race Control. 

L22 Tander in the lead, around Winterbottom. D'Alberto set the fastest lap on L21, a 1min14.0973.

GT told to turn headlights off! 

L23 last of the cars on soft tyres have passed Jamie Whincup. With an alternate strategy, he is down in 17th. 

L24 Whincup told 'not too many more now, push on brother'.

Whincup told to push on because others have to do 20 extra laps on softs than they do.

L25 D'Alberto goes into second, around Winterbottom.

Lowndes (s) also around Winterbottom, and Courtney (s) looking at him as well.  

L27 Winterbottom getting swamped by cars on softs. van Gisbergen and Webb follow in 6 and 7. 

L28 Whincup again told to push on. He's in 17th.

L29 FPR setting up for Winterbottom – he's in for soft tyres.

19.73sec pit stop for Frosty. Bright also in pit lane.  

Winterbottom rejoins in 23rd. Nine cars ahead of him on hards. 

L30 Whincup in. 

19.63sec – one tenth quicker than Winterbottom's stop. 

Whincup is a lap down now. W Davison in, as well as Mostert and A Davison. 18.9sec stop for Will.

Davison out in front of Tander, but on cold tyres. L32. 

Coulthard in, a lot of damage on the back of his car.

L34 Ingall in.

L35 McLaughlin in pit lane. Half way through the race.

L36 van Gis in. Tander getting caught with traffic.

L37 Tander leads D'Alberto, Courtney, Lowndes, Todd Kelly, Pye, Fiore, Caruso, Webb, van Gisbergen. Winterbottom 11 with seven-lap old softs, Will Davison 15, McLaughlin 16, Bright 18, Whincup 19, Coulthard 22. 

Another set of tyres rolled out for Courtney. 

Todd Kelly told to ignore low oil alarm on the Altima. 

L39 Courtney in for two rears.

L40 Tander in for teo rear tyres, 14.39sec stop. Looked as if they were new. 

L41 order is D'Alberto, Lowndes, Pye, Tander, Courtney, SVG, Webb, Winterbottom, Ingall, Slade.

L43 Winterbottom needs half a second per lap when putting softs on the car. Tander and Courtney effectively first and second once the tyre difference plays out.

L45 contact between Rick Kelly and Scott Pye at turn one. 

L46 Lowndes in the pits. D'Alberto's team to leave him out as long as they can on fuel. Two used rears for Tony, when he pits. 

Lowndes out in front of Winterbottom in seventh. 

Winterbottom on the inside of Lowndes at turn 11. That is effectively for third. 

146,842 attendance figure for three days. 

L50 D'Alberto stopped. 14.09sec, for fuel and two rears. He's out in front of Winterbottom, behind Webb for fifth. 

Winterbottom 7.8sec behind Tander. 

L51 order is Tander, Courtney, van Gisbergen, Webb, Winterbottom, D'Alberto, Lowndes, Ingall, Slade, Will Davison. McLaughlin in 11, Whincup 13, Bright 14, Coulthard 18. 

Lapped Fiore between Tander and Courtney, the leaders. Van Gisbergen the fastest man on track.

L56 Ingall up the inside of Lowndes – up to seventh after starting 26th. 

L58 Winterbottom catches Webb for fourth.

L59 and top five is Tander, Courtney, van Gisbergen, Winterbottom, Webb. Lowndes 8, Will Davison 10, McLaughlin 11, Whincup 12, Bright 13. 

Five laps to go and Tander still leads Courtney, van Gisbergen, Winterbottom and D'Alberto.

Could it be an HRT one-two?

L67 McLaughlin into 10th, past Will Davison. He's down in 11th. 

L69 Ingall into fifth. 

FINAL LAP – Tander, Courtney, van Gisbergen, Winterbottom, Ingall, D'Alberto, Lowndes, Slade, McLaughlin, Webb. Will Davison 11th. 

HRT WIN 1 - 2. Garth Tander and James Courtney. Full results available here.