The four V8 Supercars title hopefuls could all boast hard luck stories by the end of Saturday’s race on Phillip Island.

Craig Lowndes? Edged out on to the gravel and shuffled back into the pack.

Jamie Whincup? Mis-timed qualifying left him 13th.

Mark Winterbottom? The unfulfilled promise of a pole position.

And for Will Davison, a day that never got going and got worse.

One of the closest championships for years may well be decided by a solitary Phillip Island corner.

Just centimetres separated Winterbottom’s Ford and Lowndes’s Holden as they drove the final bend of the split race’s first half but, by turn’s end, Winterbottom had dropped position and Lowndes was in the gravel.

Lowndes believed he could travel two abreast but Winterbottom wasn’t giving the space.

“It doesn’t change my mindset… we’ve still got to push hard. We’ve still got to be fighting,” said Lowndes, who started the turn in a podium position and ended up 15th.

“We had a few little issues along the way, but it’s entertaining back there, a lot of things go on.”

Lowndes was able to recover to finish eighth but yielded the championship lead to team-mate Jamie Whincup, who finished fourth.

Garth Tander stayed out of trouble to win from Fabian Coulthard and Alex Davison.

Despite qualifying 13th Jamie Whincup was able to wrestle the championship lead with fourth place.

“We should take those points and run with them. It could have been a lot worse,” Whincup said.

“I was thinking of Lowndesy on that last lap, Red Bull Racing deserved to get one back here.”

It was a difficult day for Will Davison, who was clinging to his championship hopes by a thread after a 17th place finish.

Davison was nudged off the track by Shane van Gisbergen and slid to the back of the pack.

“Disastrous day. Ruined in the first leg when I was spun around,” he said.

“I was having a clean run, got up to 6th, doing everything we needed to do… obviously it’s ruined my day.”

His Ford stablemate had a roller-caster day after starting on pole and finishing fifth, but Winterbottom was philosophical after the race.

“It is what it is,” he said.

“Qualifying was great but the race was a little bit frustrating.”

“You like to convert poles into wins and I didn’t do that today so I’ve got to look at what I did wrong and what others did right.”

For the four aspirants, Sunday’s two races give the promise of both recovery and more missed opportunity.