Craig Lowndes has won his first V8 Supercars race in 10 months, triumphing at Symmons Plains.

In the first of two short 60km races at the Tasmanian circuit, Lowndes won convincingly on Saturday from pole position, storming away from Ford’s Mark Winterbottom.

Lowndes’ triumph was his first since Perth last year – and his 98th career race victory, pushing him closer to becoming the first man to win 100 V8 Supercars races.

In third place was series leader James Courtney.

Lowndes praised his engineers, who improved the car from Friday’s practice day when it spent plenty of time off the track.

“They gave me a great car,” he said.

“We worked pretty tirelessly to make it a good race car.

“The most important part was to get that break on Frosty (from the start) and that’s what we were able to do.”

The Blue Oval improved on previous 2015 results, with Haz Mobster finishing fifth and David Reynolds sixth.

While Lowndes wasn’t headed at the front of the pack, there was plenty of racing incidents further back.

Strong qualifying work from Will Davison was undone on the first lap, when the Mercedes driver came inside of James Courtney and was turned around.

Lee Holdsworth was punished for contact with Todd Kelly, given a drive-through penalty that sent him backwards.

Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin’s miserable 2015 season continued, pulling into pit lane after the first lap with engine trouble and retiring in the garage.

Lowndes will start on pole position for Saturday’s second race, which begins at 5:15 pm (AEDT).