Whincup now has a 188-point buffer over his teammate Craig Lowndes, the only driver in with a chance to deny Whincup the title. Although there are 300 points up for grabs around the streets of Homebush in Sydney in two weeks, it'll be a big ask for Lowndes to leapfrog his team-mate but he's not giving up.
Lowndes' once-in-a-season-type drive in the wet on Saturday was legendary. He monstered his way from 27th to cross the line fifth by race end to keep the series' trophy out of Whincup's cabinet.
"I wanted to come out of this weekend and go into Homebush within 300 points of Jamie," says Lowndes. "I had a great run with Will [Davison] and had Garth [Tander] closing in. Homebush could be anything."
While Lowndes and Whincup were fighting for the championship, the Kiwis were battling for survival.
After race one Shane van Gisbergen had nabbed his third place back in the championship from Winterbottom but came unstuck in race two, settling for sixth while Winterbottom came home second. Winterbottom now has a 35-point lead over the Kiwi heading to Sydney.
"The car was a real handful at the start of the race so we pitted early to make some changes and take on some new tyres, which improved things dramatically," says Van Gisbergen. "After each stop the car got better and eventually we had the pace to make some ground but we were too far back from the leaders in the last stint to make an impact."
Greg Murphy's recent return to form and climb up the championship ladder has hit a brick wall of late. Up until Tasmania it looked like the Kiwi driver was on pace to make it inside the top 10 by season's end, but he's hit the speed wobbles.
On Saturday Murphy had a big off with the team working through the night to get the car ready for Sunday's qualifying.
"I couldn't believe that we would have a weekend worse than Tassie but we had very poor form unfortunately this weekend," says Murphy. "We've gone backwards in the championship so we will be working damn hard in Sydney to claw back as many points as we can. It's was a horrific, horrific weekend, so we move on and look to Sydney to get back on form."
Fabian Coulthard was 12th and remains in 10th place overall in the standings while Murphy recovered from his crash on Saturday to finish 21st and is 13th in the championship.
Macau Grand Prix
Things worked out no better for the two young New Zealand drivers contesting the 58th Macau Grand Prix. Kiwi drivers have had much success over the years on the peninsula off mainland China but last weekend wasn't one of them.
Two of the most promising open wheeler racers New Zealand has produced in the past few years, Mitch Evans and Richie Stanaway, both proven winners in Europe, were hoping to showcase their talents.
Owing to combined adverse factors, neither driver had a weekend to write home about. The weekend never really got going for them and it was a battle from the get-go with mechanical dramas, accidents, stalled cars, rain, lack of practice and poor qualifying times conspiring against them. Both drivers failed to finish the race with Stanaway firing into the back of a stalled car and Evans' race ending on lap four.
"It was not the way I hoped Macau was going to go," says Evans. "I had a braking problem in the Grand Prix after making several places up at the start.
"It was a disappointing weekend but I really appreciate the opportunity and definitely want to come back and give it a real good shot next year."
The writing was on the wall during qualifying when Stanaway could only post the 21st fastest time nearly two seconds off the pace.
However, because of a number of penalties he was moved up to 18th on the grid. Evans' day was even more torrid when his engine let go on the warm-up lap not allowing him to post any time, so he started at the rear of the grid.
Daniel Juncadella eventually won the Grand Prix after making the most of a safety car restart to grab a lead that he never relinquished. The Spaniard was running fourth early on in the race but, after jumping two places following a safety car restart on lap five, he passed Marco Wittmann following another safety car restart on lap 10.
