Jamie Whincup stressed that it was a lack of car speed, not poor strategy, that cost him a 100th career win in Race 16 at Queensland Raceway.
Whincup proved unable to hold out Van Gisbergen in the dying stages as the Kiwi charged by on tyres nine laps fresher than his team-mate.
The six-time champion confirmed post-race that his crew had picked its strategy based on the need to hold off fellow team-mate Craig Lowndes.
Lowndes kicked off the stops by peeling in from second on lap seven, triggering Whincup to pit a lap later.
“The lead car always gets the preference and we chose to pit early to cover Craig,” said Whincup.
“I believe that was the right call, we just didn’t have enough pace. That’s what lost us the race.
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“The story of my race was that I bolted off the line, got to the front (by passing Chris Pither and Chaz Mostert on the opening lap) and was just a mobile chicane from there.
“I felt bad holding Lowndsey up the whole way but unfortunately that’s the way it goes.
“Shane was coming on pretty strong and was always going to get us.”
Whincup also had to save fuel during the race as his side of the garage chose not to top his car off in the stop.
Van Gisbergen, who did take a splash of fuel, admitted his crew had benefitted from tracking Whincup’s fuel consumption.
“These (Jamie and Craig) guys were racing each other quite aggressively so my guys had an extra 10 laps to work out that we were going to be a little bit short (on fuel),” he said.
“It’s just a risk. The pitstops are a second or two slower when you take those guys off the wheels.
“For me it was just flat-out driving all the way so it was worth it for that.”
Although facing a delicate task to pass his two team-mates for the win, Van Gisbergen says he’s been enjoying the intra-team battle this season.
Today marked the squad’s second one-two-three finish of the year, which has seen it running three cars for the first time.
“I think we smashed a headlight together in Melbourne and got a wrap (reprimand from team boss Roland Dane) so we had to be careful,” smiled Van Gisbergen.
“All the battles have been hard and just racing like we normally would, but obviously in the back of your mind you know it’s a team car and all the guys in the shed (garage) and back at the factory are relying on you for a good result.
“But for me it’s been great so far. We’ve been up the front and racing hard.
“I think I’m normally quite calculated with my moves nowadays. I try and be clean and race everyone hard and fair.”
Lowndes was meanwhile left to settle for third after proving unable to find a way by Whincup either before or after losing out to Van Gisbergen.
“We thought our cars would be good on the tyres and Ludo (Lacroix, engineer) called us in a little earlier than what we’d planned at the start of the race,” he said.
“We were trying to keep a good gap to Jamie so we didn’t burn the tyre up too much and were hoping with 15 laps to go we’d have a bit better pace.
“I think our car was strong in areas, but Shane was closing the gap and I made a mistake and slid wide which allowed him to get by.
“It was a good race for us as a team and good to bounce back from Townsville.”
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