The instruction from team owner Roland Dane was clear: don’t do it again.

The clash between Red Bull Racing team-mates Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup around turn six of the Symmons Plains track killed a rare chance to take complete a set of one-two finishes and hold firm the constructors championship.

As Lowndes took the corner slightly wide, Whincup moved quickly inside him, and when Lowndes sought to move back into the space he found only Whincup’s number one car, sending him off the track.

If it was Whincup’s mistake, it was reckless – if Lowndes was to blame it was careless.

Either way, it spoiled Red Bull’s run of one-two results – the fastest pair in practice and both qualifying sessions – before they’d banked a one-two result.

Moving swiftly after the race, Dane took the two drivers into the Red Bull van to clear the air.

“They know not to do that and it won’t be happening again,” he said.

“You know what drivers are like, they’re like children: you give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.”

“I can sympathise with both of them, I’m just annoyed it’s between both our cars.”

Lowndes recovered from 11th to finish eighth in race one, and then steered his Holden from the back of the grid to be fifth in race two.

But the ever-smiling Lowndes revealed the pair had apologised to each other and would move on.

“I’m over it,” he declared.

“It was disappointing… but If it wasn’t Jamie it would have been put down as a racing incident,” he said.

“We’ve got on with it and we’ll get on with it tomorrow.”

Whincup, who said he was “sorry for the situation” to the team after the race, agreed.

“Lowndesy and I have been racing hard for eight years or so and we’ve never had contact so it was a pretty ordinary situation for our team,” he said.