Team WRT snagged a one-two finish at Mount Panorama but almost came up short.
“I had a fuel surge on the way to the podium ceremony, so it was very tight,” said van der Linde.
After a chaotic start to the race littered with Safety Car interventions, the race enjoyed an incident-free final four hours.
That put an even greater emphasis on fuel consumption, which caught out contenders Arise and Craft-Bamboo.
Chaz Mostert was forced to pit the #26 Ferrari 296 with just over 20 minutes remaining from the lead of the race and finished fourth.
Lucas Auer was running second in the #77 Mercedes-AMG – which included local Jayden Ojeda among its line-up – when he pitted inside the final 10 minutes.
While it was a cruel end for the Australian contingent, the German team was thankful for the green flag finish.
Farfus made his first Bathurst 12 Hour start with Schnitzer Motorsport in 2018, and has been luckless since.
Speaking about the long-awaited win, he revelled in the success – but like van der Linde, offered some insight into the touch-and-go situation in the final half hour.
“We definitely had years when we thought globally, especially with [the BMW] M6, we had a car that had a bit more pace in hand,” said Farfus.
“This time, we thought we had the same pace as the competitor at the end of the day, and at full push we didn’t.
“We’ve been practicing from day one here on fuel saving and understanding how to maximise our stint lengths because we thought this race could end up the way it ended.
“I think we mastered this. This helped. Today, in the last 30 minutes, if a Safety Car would have come I think we would have been gone.
“Also, the #46 would have been in trouble because everyone would have managed to stretch the stint and stay on track.
“At some point, I said it has to be the year today and luckily it was. I definitely feel we’ve been chosen to be the winners today. We executed to perfection.”
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