Shane van Gisbergen came home strongly to overtake teammate Jamie Whincup late to claim victory in the Townsville 500 weekend opener.
Starting on pole, the Kiwi was outsprinted off the line by Whincup in the first of two Supercars races around the city streets of North Queensland, and wouldn't have the lead until the 70th of 87 laps.
It was a dominating 250km performance from the Red Bull Racing team with second-placed Whincup finishing 37.4 seconds clear of Anton de Pasquale in the No.11 Shell Mustang.
Whincup maintained a three-five second gap over the Kiwi throughout the opening half of the race as the Holden pair slowly edged away from the chasing pack behind.
At the final stop, Whincup had a four-second lead on his teammate, although Van Gisbergen's tires were several laps fresher and that proved the key, with Van Gisbergen chasing down the veteran Australian.
Six laps later, Van Gisbergen made his move at the final turn, slipping past Whincup under brakes and leaving the series leader to race away to his ninth win of the season.
"That was real physical," van Gisbergen said.
"Thanks to Red Bull Ampol Racing, our cars were awesome. It was super cool.
"I knew I had one shot [to pass Whincup] before the tires cooked, and I got him. Real cool."
Whincup was disappointed to fall so far behind after leading for the balance of the race.
"I've got to see where the seven seconds is, for sure," Whincup said.
"I don't know whether it's car, driver, strategy, not sure. But I'll certainly go hunting for that.
"Sweet and sour; I'm obviously rapt for the team, but disappointed for the 88 crew we couldn't go one better after a really good start."
Van Gisbergen will take a 233-point lead over Whincup into Sunday's race.
Chaz Mostert, who was only 14th, retained third overall but is 317 points behind.
