Jamie Whincup continued his perfect start to the 2010 V8 Supercars Championship with his third consecutive race win in the Middle East on Friday night.
The defending champion led the opening 200km race of the Desert 400 in Bahrain from start to finish to add to his earlier wins in Abu Dhabi.
Starting from pole, Whincup was never really tested as he took the chequered flag 3.5 seconds ahead of Mark Winterbottom and 12 seconds in front of team-mate Craig Lowndes.
"We have had a great run," Whincup said. "To win in Abu Dhabi was huge but to come here and win is really something else."
"I know it looked easy, but we were working hard. Frosty (Winterbottom) really pushed us today."
"We really set our day up today with our amazing qualifying run this morning and from there our car was excellent in the race and our strategy was spot on."
Lowndes started the race in eighth spot but pushed his way through the field to take a podium position.
"Coming back through the field is not ideal but thankfully this is a track that lends itself to passing," Lowndes said.
"I am delighted with another podium however I am disappointed with my top 10 shootout result."
"Another poor top 10 run made our life difficult but again the guys came up with a car that was quite aggressive and allowed me to attack a few people."
Winterbottom made a blistering start to the race, passing fellow Ford driver Shane Van Gisbergen for second but was unable to hunt down Whincup.
"The car is definitely improving as we go on … it's a learning process that is rapidly developing," Winterbottom said of his new Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon.
"The day will come. At the moment we will keep tuning what we have got, keep bagging points, keep learning and when the time comes it will come quickly."
"At the moment two seconds and a third is a great start. We are definitely stronger than we were at the start of last year so who knows … you can't control how well the other teams are going. Jamie is having a great run so to finish second when he is best on the day is all you can do."
After three races Whincup has amassed maximum points and sits atop the V8 Supercar Championship Series table with 450 points.
The Desert 400 concludes on Saturday with qualifying for Race 4 of the V8 Supercar Championship at 7.20pm (AEDT) and Race 4 (200km) to get underway at 10.35pm (AEDT).
Desert 400, Race 1
1 Jamie Whincup
2 Mark Winterbottom
3 Craig Lowndes
4 Garth Tander
5 Shane van Gisbergen
6 James Courtney
7 Russell Ingall
8 Will Davison
9 Rick Kelly
10 Michael Caruso