Brown wins Race 4, Feeney makes costly late error

Will Brown has retaken the championship lead with victory in Race 4, with Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert both stumbling at Albert Park.

Brown (#87 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet) pounced on pole-sitter Cam Waters (#6 Monster Energy Ford) into Turn 1 off the start, and led the majority of the 17-lap race.

The Triple Eight recruit’s return to the points lead was aided by a late error for teammate Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet), who dropped from second to fourth in the closing stages.

Mostert, meanwhile, suffered suspected tyre blistering in his #25 Mobil 1 Optus Ford, plummeted to 17th, and is now 83 points from the championship lead.

Mark Winterbottom (#18 DEWALT Chevrolet) and Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Ford) benefited from Feeney’s late error to complete the podium, with Brown now 18 points ahead in the championship fight.

"It was really cool then, I had a super fast car. I was just able to manage it from the front there, and save the tyres," Brown said.

"It's going to be hard to qualify here again, you've got to make no mistakes. Hopefully we qualify up there for the next two races."

Feeney was fourth ahead of Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Ford), Nick Percat (#10 Bendix Chevrolet) and Waters.

Brown claimed the maximum 80 points, having also set the fastest lap of the race.

The #87 Camaro got a better launch and led the field into the first corner. Waters slotted into second ahead of Feeney, Winterbottom, with Payne and Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Ford).

Payne and De Pasquale made wheel-to-wheel contact through Turn 4, sending De Pasquale wide with broken steering for the #11 Shell V-Power Ford.

Jack Le Brocq (#9 TFH Hire Chevrolet) emerged in fifth, with Davison passing Payne as Waters defended from Feeney.

Davison passed Le Brocq through Turns 3 and 4, with Payne following the #17 past the #9.

Feeney got by Waters, and as the Tickford Racing driver tried to fight back at Turn 12, the #6 Ford fell down to sixth.

Winterbottom briefly held second over Feeney before the latter got by at Turn 3, and set off after Brown. Payne, meanwhile, passed Davison for fourth.

Feeney slashed Brown's lead to 0.4s on lap 13, but Brown responded and opened up a gap.

Brown opened his lead to two seconds, courtesy of a 1:49.7203s on lap 15, before Feeney slid offline at Turn 13 and dropped to fourth behind Winterbottom and Payne.

Feeney dumped nine points with the error, having led the championship by two points heading into Friday.

The race went time-certain to 17 laps, with Brown winning by 0.9693s from Winterbottom, Payne, Feeney, Davison, Percat, Waters, Le Brocq, Todd Hazelwood (#99 TFH Hire Chevrolet), and Tim Slade (#23 PremiAir Nulon Chevrolet).

De Pasquale retired, while Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Ford) was classified 23rd after he was given a 15-second penalty over a collision with Cameron Hill (#4 Tyrepower Chevrolet).

Supercars will return to Albert Park on Saturday for Race 5 Qualifying at 9:00am AEST, before Race 6 Qualifying at 9:25am. Saturday Supercars action will conclude with Race 5, which starts at 5:40pm and runs 14 laps or one lap after 6:08pm.