Coulthard denies Winterbottom in Symmons finale

Fabian Coulthard made the most of a late Safety Car restart to steal the Race 5 victory from Mark Winterbottom at Symmons Plains.

Winterbottom had led away from pole and appeared to have Coulthard covered until the full course yellows flew with 10 laps to go.

The pause was triggered by a sickening accident for Scott Pye, who was lucky to walk away from a head-on impact with the Turn 2 exit wall after suffering a brake failure.

Coulthard dive-bombed Winterbottom at the Turn 4 hairpin with just three laps remaining, nudging the Pepsi Max FPR Falcon aside in the process.

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Coulthard went on to take the win while Winterbottom limped to the line second with his left-front tyre flat following the contact.

James Courtney ran third for the entire journey to score his first podium of the year, while Jason Bright won a race long battle with Jamie Whincup on the final lap to take fourth.

Will Davison, Jonathon Webb, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander completed the top 10.

Todd Kelly joined Pye on the retirements list after an engine problem with his Nissan.

The race featured two Safety Cars, with the first called to retrieve the rear diffuser of Tim Slade’s Mercedes on Lap 6 after it had fallen onto the circuit.

A miraculous effort from Ford Performance Racing saw David Reynolds return to action following his Race 4 accident.

The car finished just 24th however after a receiving a mechanical black flag to fix left-front mudguard damage while running 12th.

The V8 Supercars Championship will continue New Zealand next weekend for Races 6, 7, 8 and 9 at Pukekohe.

See below for the Race 5 result

1	Lockwood Racing	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:20.8286
2	Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG	42	42:23.1961
3	Holden Racing Team	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:23.6060
4	Team BOC	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:23.7901
5	Red Bull Racing Australia	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:24.0779
6	Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG	42	42:24.3186
7	Tekno Autosports	Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:25.3339
8	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Scott McLaughlin	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:25.4402
9	TEKNO Team VIP	Shane Van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:26.0002
10	Holden Racing Team	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:26.2169
11	Red Bull Racing Australia	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:29.4286
12	Jeld-wen FPR Ford	Alex Davison	Ford Falcon FG	42	42:29.4926
13	Irwin Racing	Lee Holdsworth	Mercedes E63 AMG	42	42:30.1010
14	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Alexandre Premat	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:30.5533
15	Norton 360 Racing	James Moffat	Nissan Altima	42	42:32.8063
16	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	42	42:33.2354
17	Norton 360 Racing	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	42	42:33.6640
18	Heavy Haulage Racing	Tim Slade	Mercedes E63 AMG	42	42:34.4020
19	Wilson Security Racing	David Wall	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:34.7126
20	Wilson Security Racing	Jonny Reid	Ford Falcon FG	42	42:36.1759
21	Dodo Insurance Racing	Dean Fiore	Holden Commodore VF	42	42:37.6354
22	Wilson Security Racing	Tim Blanchard	Ford Falcon FG	41	42:36.6877
23	SP Tools Racing	Maro Engel	Mercedes E63 AMG	41	42:36.9093
24	The Bottle-O FPR Ford	David Reynolds	Ford Falcon FG	41	42:38.1085
25	Team HIFLEX	Tony D’Alberto	Holden Commodore VF	41	43:00.4409
26	Supercheap Auto Racing	Russell Ingall	Holden Commodore VF	37	42:40.6712
DNF	ekol Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	32	29:35.4616
DNF	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	20	19:15.2506

See below for the updated championship standings after Race 5

1	Jamie Whincup	513
2	Will Davison	450
3	James Courtney	398
4	Craig Lowndes	397
5	Scott McLaughlin	366
6	Mark Winterbottom	357
7	Fabian Coulthard	334
8	Jonathon Webb	332
9	Shane Van Gisbergen	316
10	Garth Tander	314
11	Russell Ingall	290
12	Jason Bright	284
13	Tony D’Alberto	269
14	Rick Kelly	227
15	Alexandre Premat	218
16	James Moffat	216
17	Dean Fiore	215
18	Scott Pye	214
19	Lee Holdsworth	212
20	Alex Davison	199
21	David Wall	194
22	Tim Blanchard	191
23	Tim Slade	146
24	Michael Caruso	142
25	David Reynolds	109
26	Maro Engel	79
27	Jonny Reid	72
28	Todd Kelly	38