Van Gisbergen held of Mark Winterbottom to keep his slim title hopes alive, while Scott McLaughlin prevailed in a race-long battle with Jamie Whincup to narrow the points gap at the top of the table to just 18 points.

At the same time Fabian Coulthard's title tilt took a big blow after a wild rollover midway through the race.

Having spent the race battling mid-pack, the DJR Team Penske driver was on a charge through the Top 10 when he tangled with David Reynolds – recovering from a clash with Chaz Mostert at the hairpin – on Lap 58 and ended up on his roof after rolling in the sand.

The DNF means he's now 137 points off Whincup, while van Gisbergen is 159 points off the lead.

Story of the race

Despite an abandoned qualifying session early in the day due to rain – and genuine question marks over whether the race would even be able to start should the rain have persisted – the race got underway in mostly dry conditions and with the full field on slick tyres.

It was the Red Bulls that made the best of the start, Whincup mobbing polesitter Waters on the run to Turn 1 while Shane van Gisbergen came from sixth on the grid to charge into third.

The top three quickly bolted, with Mark Winterbottom and Scott McLaughlin giving chase as a clear top five was established.

On Lap 9 the first of the leaders hit the lane, van Gisbergen making his first compulsory stop. That moved both Winterbottom and McLaughlin up a spot to third and fourth respectively, before the pair pitted a lap later, McLaughlin jumping the Prodrive Ford in the process.

The pair both emerged ahead of van Gisbergen, but the Red Bull Holden driver quickly cleared Winterbottom to move back into effective third spot.

Whincup and Waters then followed suit on Lap 12 and 14 respectively, Whincup retaining the lead while Waters dropped to the back of the lead pack behind Winterbottom.

The battle for the lead turned over to Whincup and McLaughlin, and on Lap 18 they almost came to blows. A huge lunge from McLaughlin at the hairpin led to a wild side-by-side exchange through the quick section onto the main straight, McLaughlin lucky to survive a huge moment after being forced into the grass by the leader.

The move led to Whincup being shown the bad sportsmanship flag for not leaving racing room.

A thrilling battle between the pair continued until Lap 32, when James Courtney went into the wall at Turn 3 and the Safety Car was called.

Whincup and McLaughlin dived straight into the pits, the #88 narrowly retaining track position on the way out.

But van Gisbergen was the big winner, after staying out to complete another lap to avoid having to stack behind Whincup. When Whincup and McLaughlin were momentarily baulked behind the Safety Car before being waved past on their out-lap, van Gisbergen was able to jump into the lead.

Winterbottom, who pitted with van Gisbergen, made a similar gain and slipped into second.

The race went green again on Lap 37, and two laps later McLaughlin finally cleared Whincup, barging past at the hairpin to take third spot.

On Lap 52 Whincup went very close to throwing his title tilt away, running wide at Turn 1 on a slightly damp track. He managed to gather it up by a matter of centimetres, and even managed to recover the small amount of time lost when the Safety Car came out thanks to Dale Wood running off the road at Turn 3 moments later.

It took just six laps for the next Safety Car to arrive, this time thanks to Coulthard's title fight-changing rollover near pit entry.

By the time the race got going again it had become time certain, making it a two-lap sprint to the end. And despite mirrors full of Winterbottom's Ford, van Gisbergen was able to keep his slim title hopes alive with victory

Nursing a suspected engine problem throughout the final stint, McLaughlin was able to come home third, ahead of points leader Jamie Whincup.

Chaz Mostert, who like van Gisbergen came into the round with faint title hopes, is now all but out of contention, a drive-through for the initial contact with Reynolds leaving him down in 23rd and 210 off Whincup in the points.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap	Points
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1hr23m58.8114s	150
2	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	0.8173	138
3	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1.4249	129
4	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1.8798	120
5	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	2.5530	111
6	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	3.1603	102
7	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	3.9513	96
8	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	4.3147	90
9	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	4.7580	84
10	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	5.2802	78
11	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	6.4743	72
12	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	6.7562	69
13	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	7.4968	66
14	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	8.0738	63
15	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	8.5193	60
16	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	9.3812	57
17	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	9.9424	54
18	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	10.2836	51
19	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	10.8550	48
20	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	12.8035	45
21	3	Aaren Russell	Holden Commodore VF	13.7712	42
22	62	Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore VF	14.0530	39
23	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	50.2411	36
24	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	3 laps	33
25	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	3 laps	30
	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG/X	10 laps