Motorsport: Coulthard named winner after technical breach

Victory has been savoured by Holden driver Fabian Coulthard before Sunday's Australian Grand Prix exhibition round finale after a technical breach wiped some of V8 Supercars' biggest names from the result sheet.

Coulthard finished fourth in race three on Saturday behind fellow flying Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen who claimed line honours.

However, Coulthard on Sunday was elevated to first by officials after eight big-name drivers were excluded from race three results due to the breach.

The list of affected drivers reads like a "who's who'' of the category - van Gisbergen, four-time champion Jamie Whincup, series leader Craig Lowndes, Bathurst winner Todd Kelly, Michael Caruso, Jonathan Webb, Scott Pye and Dean Fiore.

When all were culled from the race-three timesheets, Coulthard was awarded the win - his third straight at the non-championship Melbourne round - with David Reynolds second and Jason Bright third.

Officials said the drivers were punished for "an accidental setting of the ignition timing''.

Nissan driver Kelly said no advantage would have been gained by any of the eight drivers but acknowledged it was technically a breach.

"It's obviously a penalty that has to be applied,'' Kelly said.

"They're the rules and unfortunately there's been an oversight on two of our cars, which has caused us to be in breach of those rules.

"It's hard to be too tough on anybody here for that because of the hours the boys have been doing ... you could easily see how that oversight could have crept in.

"The actual breach is of no real significance whatsoever performance wise but it is a breach of the rules so I respect the action that they've taken.

"It's just a shame that it's happened. We'll definitely be tightening up our procedures in the future to ensure it doesn't happen again.''

- AAP