SVG TAKES RACE ONE AT CLIPSAL

Shane van Gisbergen has continued his winning ways by taking pole and the first victory of 2017.

The Red Bull Holden racing Team driver cruised to a dominant 15s win ahead of the battling pair of Fabian Coulthard and James Courtney.

Jamie Whincup had a disappointing day as an early safety car to retrieve the stricken Tekno Holden Commodore of Will Davison saw Whincup gamble and take a pitstop. Whincup was involved in an incident with Mark Winterbottom, which was to be investigated post-race making Whincup’s sixth place provisional.

Ahead of Whincup was the leading Prodrive Racing Australia Ford Falcon FGX of Cameron Waters with the Monster sponsored driver equalling his career-best result, fourth, ahead of the resurgent Rick Kelly who recovered from a poor Shootout to finish in fifth.

Reigning Clipsal 500 victor Nick Percat made a solid start to his career at Brad Jones Racing by completing a late pass on Craig Lowndes to finish seventh, despite an incident with teammate Tim Slade.

Rounding out the top 10 were a disappointed Chaz Mostert after two off-track excursions and James Moffat, who made a strong Holden debut and gave Garry Rogers Motorsport a strong top 10 result in their Holden comeback.

Further down the field, one of the pre-race favourites in Scott McLaughlin had a race to forget after reacting to Whincup’s move to pit early, McLaughlin earned a pit lane penalty after swerving while the Safety Cars lights were off. McLaughlin eventually finished a disappointed 17^th.

Both Taz Douglas and Jason Bright had to deal with failed cool suits finishing 24^th and 21^st respectively, as debutants Simona de Silvestro and Alex Rullo completed their first Adelaide sprint race finishing in 20^th and 23^rd respectively.

Davison and Dale Wood (gearbox) were the only non-finishers.

The Supercars are on track at 10:50 local time for Qualifying ahead of the Top 10 Shootout and Race Two.