Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has made the perfect start to his title defence, winning Saturday's season-opening race at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing star used pit lane strategy to outwit his rivals in the 300km opener under lights at the Eastern Creek-based circuit.
Shell V-Power Racing's Anton De Pasquale, who claimed pole position earlier in the day, finished second with Bathurst champion Chaz Mostert jumping young gun Will Brown late in the race to finish third.
Brown, a race winner in Sydney last year, simply fell off a cliff as his tyres degraded towards the end and limped home in seventh having been at the front of the field for most of the race.
Starting from second, van Gisbergen used an undercut to claim the lead after compatriot Andre Heimgartner had made a fast start with the new super soft compound tyre to snatch the early advantage from the Holden ace and De Pasquale.
Van Gisbergen then gave up the lead to make a third pit stop with 10 laps remaining, but armed with fresh tyres he quickly charged past Brown and then De Pasquale before winning by a comfortable 19-second margin.
"That's a team win," van Gisbergen told Fox Sports.
"I had no idea what was happening in the middle of the race there, but awesome job by the team and pretty lucky the weather held out so I hear.
"It's a great way to start. It's a long year ahead though, so don't get ahead of ourselves and keep working."
De Pasquale spent a large portion of the race driving with a windshield covered in grime, as the threat of rain hovered over the field throughout.
"I was battling with a couple of cars and it rained a little bit and then I used the wiper for some stupid reason and ruined it all," he told Fox Sports.
"They (Red Bull) played a different card than what we did and got a reward for it ... overall happy with a podium in first race of the year, it's better than what I did last year."
Van Gisbergen's teenage teammate Broc Feeney, stepping into the Red Bull Commodore of retired great Jamie Whincup for the first time, finished 10th in a highly satisfactory first outing as a full-time racer.
Holden's Scott Pye and former Bathurst champion David Reynolds were the two drivers to have starts to the year to forget.
Pye's race literally went up in smoke due to a power steering failure while a gearbox issue cruelled Reynolds before he limped home in 24th place.
The Sydney SuperNight event wraps up on Sunday with another 77-lap race in the afternoon.
