The Holden Racing Team took to the track today at the F1 Australian Grand Prix (AGP) for the first two races of the weekend around the picturesque Albert Park circuit.

Both HRT drivers had a strong qualifying session yesterday which set the grid for today’s first race. James Courtney qualified 3rd and Garth Tander 12th.
A rolling start, unique to the V8 Supercars format at the AGP, got Race 1 underway with Courtney holding 3rd position into turn 1 and Tander jumping one place to 11th.

A crash on the opening lap between turns 5 and 6 involved three different teams and saw the safety car deployed after a damaged car was stranded on the track. At the restart Tander moved up another place, despite a problem with the throttle, into 10th.

From there the two HRT Holden Commodores cruised to the finish line with Courtney 3rd and Tander 10th.

Finishing positions of Race 1 determined the starting positions for Race 2. While the V8 Supercars were set to complete 12 laps, the time-certain race was cut to just 9 laps after the safety car was called when
Wood ended up in the wall at turn 7.

During the opening lap van Gisbergen bumped Courtney on the exit of turn 1 causing Courtney to drop back to 4th where he remained until the chequered flag.

Tander again managed to better his starting position by one place to 9th on the first lap. He challenged Coulthard for position 8 in the dying stages of the race, but Coulthard ran wide and re-joined the pack still ahead of Tander.