Pepsi Max pair Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert were untouchable as they played a game of catch me if you can and are now hopeful of converting it into Championship points.

As much as the two FG-X Falcons are super quick at Albert Park – and with the long back straight of Symmons Plains next on the Championship agenda – Winterbottom is confident but measured.

“We have got to see what the year does,” said Winterbottom.

“Adelaide didn’t feel like it does here. Tassie is going to bring up issues and the next place and the next place.

“We weren’t aero deficient in Adelaide, we just weren’t quick enough. It’s nice to know we have equal equipment and if someone beats you they have just done a better job.

“That’s what happened in Adelaide. The guys were quick and just better than us.”

But having a super-fast car is better than not.

“It makes you feel good to know that when you get it right you can win, we didn’t have that last year from mid-point onwards and it gets depressing,” he said.

“The Commodores aren’t tapped out. They were good in Adelaide and are competitive here. They are always going to be tough.

“The biggest confidence gain to me was qualifying. To go a whole year without a pole position when you are used to getting them you do start to doubt yourself.

“To know we can do it is a massive boost. Everybody is trying hard. We are genuinely quick but it doesn’t mean we are home and hosed.”

Third-placed Shane Van Gisbergen has seen a lot of the two Pepsi Fords this weekend, from behind, and has a well-informed idea of just how quick they are.

“That was about the only thing I had, the Fords were just too fast again. We are playing a bit of a tyre game so hopefully we can challenge more tomorrow,” the Kiwi said.

Van Gisbergen flew out of the blocks and applied what has become a signature move for the Kiwi at Albert Park, sliding down the inside and almost onto the grass before trying to pull it up into the first right hander.

He was successful this time in getting underneath Mostert and James Courtney, who originally started on his inside, although the audacious move didn’t last. Van Gisbergen undid the work when he ran wide on the second lap, with the faster Mostert slipping up the inside and away.

“I made a mistake and locked the brake,” he said. “It was always going to happen anyway, they were so much faster at that point. I was just trying to keep James (Courtney) behind.”

Former Champion Marcos Ambrose was keen for a fight early as the mid-pack went berserk from the rolling start as they fought for inches. Ambrose held his own on old tyres but then slipped down in the pack as he continues to adjust to the braking after nine years in the US.

Erebus Mercedes’ Ash Walsh and Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin started at the back of the grid for the third race, having been penalised for infringements from the previous race.

Walsh was found guilty of causing contact with Marcos Ambrose on the first lap while McLaughlin admitted to careless driving after contact with Dale Wood in the Brad Jones Racing prepared GB Galvanising Commodore.

McLaughlin’s weekend got worse when he stopped in lap three with an undiagnosed failure. Unfortunately for one of last year’s fastest drivers it followed similar heartache at the Championship opener in Adelaide.