The Wall Racing Honda driver and longtime series leader twice had his title hopes bolstered during a curious morning at Mount Panorama.
First, chief rival Jordan Cox (Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot) was slapped with a five-second penalty for his late run-in with Luke King (Moutai Hyundai) in yesterday's opener.
That dropped him from ninth to 14th in the final classification which stretched D'Alberto's advantage from 35 to 49 points.
It also dropped Cox off the front row for the inverted Top 10 Race 2 and left him 14th on the grid instead.
Not that it mattered, with the second race of the weekend ultimately not taking place thanks to poor weather.
The circuit was blanketed in heavy rain and fog shortly before the start, the red flag coming out after several laps behind the safety car.
It was never restarted which means D'Alberto will take that 49-point lead over both Cox and Will Brown (Melbourne Performance Centre Audi) into this afternoon's finale, which is worth 75 points.
HMO Hyundai driver Josh Buchan is still mathematically in the hunt sitting 72 points behind D'Alberto ahead of the final race, scheduled for 3:50pm local time.
Watch all the Bathurst International action live and free on Motorsport.tv (for viewers outside of Australia and New Zealand).
