Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen has suffered a setback to his Supercars title defence, with a disastrous finish in the third and final race at Darwin.
Challenging for a third podium finish of the weekend, the defending champion locked wheels with rival Will Davison at a late restart, suffering power steering damage. He was also penalised for the incident and credited with 21st.
Second-placed Anton De Pasquale - who also finished second in the race - cut 64 points off van Gisbergen's championship advantage, which was reduced to 214 points.
With nine victories from the previous 15 race this season, the Kiwi arrived in Australia's Northern Territory with a comfortable margin on the competition standings, but his hopes in the first of three scheduled races faded, with a slow pitstop for three fresh tyres late in the journey.
Falling back into the pack, he closed fast on the leaders, but could not break up a Shell V-Power Racing Team one-two finish by De Pasquale and Davison, despite claiming fastest-lap bonus points.
"Our race was good and bad," he said. "We were just following the leading cars for most of the race.
"We tried a different strategy in our pitstop by changing three tyres, mainly to get the fastest lap, but also to have a shot at the Shell cars in front.
"Unfortunately, our pitstop didn’t go too well today, which meant we ran out of laps at the end of the race to gain any more positions. It was good to get a podium in the end."
Sunday's opening race - the second of the weekend - was suspended, after James Courtney cut across turn five on the opening lap, colliding with Scott Pye and Thomas Randle.
After the restart, Cam Waters and Davison held out van Gisbergen, who stretched his championship lead to 278 points, before his setback later in the day.
His collision with Davison saw him drop to the rear of the field and cost him at 15-second time penalty, giving him no chance of recovery.
The Supercars championship continues next month in Townsville.
