Mark Winterbottom has closed in on V8 Supercars championship leader Craig Lowndes after claiming race-two honours at this weekend’s round in Auckland.

The Ford driver’s win on Saturday was his – and the team’s – second of the season, following victory earlier this month at Winton.

Winterbottom had the better of polesitter James Courtney off the line and retained the lead from start to finish at the bumpy Pukekohe track.

The reigning Bathurst winner crossed the line almost two seconds ahead of his Holden rival to snatch the maximum 50 points on offer.

His Ford Performance Racing teammate Chaz Mostert followed in third.

“To get the win’s awesome,” said Winterbottom, who finished 13th in Friday’s 100km race.

“I put my hand up – I drove bad yesterday. So today’s a bit of redemption.

“We’re hitting form and it’s starting to go quite well.”

Winterbottom sits just 18 points behind Lowndes, who placed a lowly 16th.

His Red Bull teammate and defending champion Jamie Whincup didn’t have the greatest afternoon either, losing his starting spot of third to Mostert early on in the 35-lap race.

Whincup, who came home last on Friday after suffering power steering failure, finished fourth ahead of Kiwis Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin.

Meanwhile, Tim Slade was forced to retire early following contact with Friday’s race winner Jason Bright, who was handed a drive-through penalty as a result.

There was similar disappointment for Robert Dahlgren, the Swedish driver retiring for a third time in 2014 after smoke filled his Volvo.

Teammate McLaughlin was penalised minutes before the race, docked two grid spots for blocking Whincup in qualifying, so he started from fifth.

He was also reported for making contact with Bright in pitlane during the second quickfire qualifying session, but escaped sanction to keep pole position for Saturday’s final sprint battle.

The 20-year-old had outpaced Whincup by 0.056secs in front of his home crowd.

The pair enjoyed a memorable battle at the season-opening Clipsal 500 in Adelaide – their last-lap duel giving rise to McLaughlin’s now infamous ‘gave it some jandal’ line.

A longer 200km race will cap off this weekend’s action in Auckland on Sunday.