Tander, who started from pole, got the jump on Whincup at the start and a safety car was brought out on lap three while Tony Ricciardello’s stricken Stratco Racing car was rescued from the hairpin.

A lap after the restart, Whincup took the lead from Tander and finished with a healthy six second margin.

“GT got a great start, I couldn’t match that and we settled into a great pace,” the reigning champ said.

“The car wasn’t perfect yesterday but it was pretty close to perfect today… we had some good tyres as well left over from yesterday.

“Although it sounds weird we had a really tough Clipsal and of course the Grand Prix and it’s just good to bounce back and get a result.”

Tander described his fellow Commodore driver as the “benchmark guy to beat”.

“I think we probably match him over one lap speed; I think his car’s got better longevity and the way Jamie drives the car he clearly makes the tyre live longer than anyone else at the moment,” GT said.

“We need to continue to work on that, me as a driver and there’s a balance with the car and the team getting the most out of the car in a long run.”

Caruso was happy to pick up his first podium of the year, describing his weekend as “fantastic”.

“We probably started off a bit slower over in the Middle East and we had some good speed on the Sunday down at the Adelaide street circuit so we made some changes that probably suit my driving style a lot more and this weekend back at (a) street circuit it’s helped,” he said.

“In qualifying we seemed to be in touching distance of the guys but I was hanging it off the fence pretty much to do so.

“We know we’ve got a bit to do in the racing in terms of picking up our speed to stay with them so we’re definitely working hard at it.”

Ricciardello was the first casualty of the race, followed by Centaur Racing’s Tony D’Alberto whose Commodore had a broken steering arm.

Bundaberg Red Racing’s Andrew Thompson did not start the race following his crash into the outside wall at turn one in qualifying this morning, while his teammate Fabian Coulthard, whose car had an engine issue and did not finish.

Stone Brothers Racing’s Alex Davison also did not finish after collecting a tyre bundle and then crashing into the concrete wall.