Mark Winterbottom made the most of pole position to take victory in the opening V8 Supercar Championship race of the weekend in Bahrain but it proved to be a race to forget for fellow Ford drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes.
While Winterbottom stormed to victory, Team Vodafone pairing Whincup and Lowndes were involved in an incident on the opening lap that ultimately forced both drivers to retire and gave the championship lead to Toll HSV Dealer Team driver Garth Tander.
The incident occurred as the field streamed out of turn six for the first time, with the Sirromet Wines Holden of Paul Morris – which had started inside the top ten – being forced wide through the turn. As Morris returned to the circuit, three cars into one wouldn't go and he locked wheels with Lowndes, tipping him into a spin that saw Whincup forced to take avoiding action. The championship leader side-swiped the tyre wall before continuing, although his damaged car would retire on lap 13, while Lowndes was out on the spot after his Falcon picked up heavy damage while hitting the tyres.
It handed the immediate advantage to Tander, and the Holden man made the most of the demise of the Vodafone pair to climb up from fourth on the grid to finish second behind Winterbottom – thereby turning a nine point deficit into an eleven point lead over Whincup going into the second race on Saturday. Just as importantly, he will now start race two from the front row while Whincup and Lowndes will be at the back. The final place on the podium went the way of Steve Johnson, who continued to show an impressive turn of speed in the Jim Beam Racing Falcon to take third.
Defending champion Rick Kelly also made the most of the Vodafone issues to keep his title challenge on line with fourth, ahead of Stone Brothers Racing pairing Russell Ingall and James Courtney.
Mark Skaife, Will Davison, Jason Bargwanna and Greg Murphy completed the top ten.
