» V8s: Whincup cruises to Race 32 victory

Jamie Whincup has claimed the 95th victory of his V8 Supercars career as Saturday’s track action at the WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint drew to a close.

The Red Bull Racing driver survived early allegations that he had jumped the start – which were quickly rejected by the Stewards – to take a comfortable victory by 1.3 seconds from pole-winner Scott McLaughlin’s Polestar GRM Volvo.

After being out-dragged by Whincup off the line, McLaughlin tried to keep pace but was ultimately kept at arm’s length by Whincup over the race’s 14-lap duration.

In contrast to Saturday’s earlier Sprint Race, the latter 60-kilometre dash proved to be a very sedate affair, with Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom, David Reynolds, Scott Pye, Michael Caruso and Rick Kelly all maintaining their grid positions across the race to finish third through eighth.

Race 31’s villain, Shane van Gisbergen, finished ninth and was one of a handful of drivers to actually make up positions from his eleventh-placed grid slot. James Courtney rounded out the top 10 in the lead HRT Holden ahead of Brad Jones Racing duo Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright.

With Lowndes finishing ahead of Winterbottom once again, he managed to further close the points gap to the championship leader to 209 points; Reynolds is third-placed and 277 points off top spot.

2015 V8 Supercars WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint – Race 32 Top-10 Finishers (14 laps)
Pos	Driver	Team / Entry	Time
1.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing / Triple 8	21:48.204
2.	Scott McLaughlin	Polestar GRM Volvo	+ 1.298
3.	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing / Triple 8	+ 2.082
4.	Mark Winterbottom	Prodrive Racing Australia	+ 8.578
5.	David Reynolds	Rod Nash Racing	+ 9.220
6.	Scott Pye	DJR Team Penske	+ 9.837
7.	Michael Caruso	Nissan Motorsport	+ 10.662
8.	Rick Kelly	Nissan Motorsport	+ 10.936
9.	Shane van Gisbergen	TEKNO Autosports	+ 11.608
10.	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team	+ 13.520