Holden’s Jamie Whincup has regained the V8 Supercars championship lead for the first time since February.

The Red Bull Racing driver holds a 15-point lead over Ford’s Mark Winterbottom after finishing sixth in Sunday’s 200km race at Queensland Raceway.

Holden’s James Courtney used a smart tyre strategy to take out the race and keep his own championship hopes alive as Winterbottom’s horror weekend continued.

Courtney’s win means he’s now fourth in the standings after his second victory of the season.

The Ford Performance Racing star, who battled his way to a pair of sixth-place finishes in Saturday’s races, limped home in 22nd after suffering a tyre puncture in the 43rd of 65 laps.

Whincup, who has stormed back from fifth in the championship standings with six wins from the past nine races, will now head to the Sydney Motorsport Park 400 later this month atop the standings.

His teammate Craig Lowndes is also closing in after completing his third runner-up position of the weekend to be 162 points off the lead.

Ford’s Chaz Mostert came home third after holding off Nissan’s James Moffat, who had earlier secured his first V8 Supercars career pole position before settling for fifth.