Mark Winterbottom admits a wrong call by his team cost him a crack at victory and the chance to extend his championship lead in the final V8 Supercars race in Perth.

But the Ford favourite says he is happy to cop it on the chin and move on.

Winterbottom finished third behind teammate Chaz Mostert and Holden rival Craig Lowndes in a tense 83-lap battle under heavy clouds at Barbagallo Raceway on Sunday.

Mostert’s win was his first since joining Ford Performance Racing at the start of the season and came on his one-year anniversary in the series.

“This must be my track,” said the 22-year-old.

“I didn’t expect this early in the season to get a win, but I’m really happy to get it.

“A lot of guys in the category have been trying over the years to get a win and I’m lucky enough to get two.”

But things could have played out very differently, with strategy proving Winterbottom’s undoing.

Lowndes, Winterbottom and Mostert led the pack for the opening 25 laps, with less than a second separating the trio before the first round of pitstops.

Winterbottom was the last of the three to get a new set of tyres and, as a result, lost his place behind Lowndes to Mostert.

“We didn’t get the strategy right, there’s no doubt about it,” the reigning Bathurst winner said.

“We should’ve pitted earlier.

“We probably should’ve come out in the lead … there’s no doubt we stayed out too long.

“But you just cop it. It’s one of those things.”

Winterbottom said his engineer was not happy with the decision and was emotional after the race.

“But I just sprayed him with champagne and he got over it,” he said.

“We got it wrong today, but we’ve got it right every other race. The team’s done a great job this year.”

While the decision may have cost him place or two in Sunday’s race, it did little to his lead on the overall standings.

He sits 101 points clear of Lowndes, with Holden’s Fabian Coulthard 140 points adrift in third.

Defending champion Jamie Whincup clawed his way back from sixth to fourth on the leaderboard and is just 213 points back thanks to a drought-breaking podium on Saturday and fourth-placing on Sunday.

Whincup and Lowndes’ recovery from two bad rounds this weekend has kept Red Bull Racing Australia atop the team standings.

The smiles were just as big in the Volvo garage after Scott McLaughlin delivered their first championship win in 28 years on Saturday.

Not since 1986 had the Swedish manufacturer taken out a series race – the year they last competed in the category and won the title.

Drivers will enjoy a five-week break before the next round in Darwin from June 20.