Jamie Whincup cost Red Bull Racing Bathurst victory, says team owner Roland Dane

Updated

Red Bull Racing team owner Roland Dane blamed V8 Supercars championship leader Jamie Whincup for ignoring orders to save fuel and costing them victory at the Bathurst 1000.

The Holden star was repeatedly urged by engineer David Cauchi and team manager Mark Dutton to ease his pace in the dying stages of Sunday's drama-filled race.

But the four-time winner at Mount Panorama kept pushing - taking the lead and extending the gap to nearly three seconds.

He eventually ran out of fuel on the 161st and final lap, allowing Ford tyro Chaz Mostert to pass him for the win.

Whincup rolled over the line in fifth, after being passed by two cars between the final corner and the finish line.

"Jamie decided to take a gamble from inside the car and we wanted him to adopt a different strategy and he decided to freelance," Dane told ABC news on Monday.

"Jamie's won plenty of races for us over the years. Many, many races where his input has made all the difference (but) this wasn't one of them.

"Those things happen and we don't feel quite as upset about them as we did last night."

Asked specifically about the fuel numbers, Dane told ABC that the car could have made it to the finishing line with a different driving strategy.

"If we'd conserved a bit more fuel during that last part of the race, last 27 odd laps, yeah we only needed another half lap of fuel which is a couple of litres so that's what we needed to get the job done," he said.

An emotional Whincup had to walk back to the pits after the end of the race.

"I probably put him in the naughty corner for half an hour but we're soon over it and looking at the next race and analysing what we did well and what we didn't do well," Dane said.

"At the end of the day we win, lose or draw as a team and we'll continue to do that."

Whincup was unapologetic for running with his own strategy and was happy he put on a "good show".

"There were two options in my head: conserve the amount of fuel they wanted me to conserve and run second, or go all out and try and win the race," he told the V8 Supercars website.

"We went all out and ended up finishing fifth."

Whincup started the Great Race in 23rd and produced one of the drives of the day to charge his way into the top five in just 15 laps.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Chaz Mostert wins maiden Bathurst 1000 title (ABC News)

The result has kept him on top of the overall standings and in line for a record sixth V8 Supercars championship.

Things did not work out for his team-mate Craig Lowndes, who was relegated to 10th on Sunday after clipping Ford's Mark Winterbottom with 11 laps to go.

He copped a drive-through penalty for causing the incident, which ended both their chances of victory.

Lowndes admitted it was his mistake, blaming the sun glare, and said he spoke to Winterbottom after the race.

It marked just the second time in a decade that Triple Eight Race Engineering, racing as Red Bull, has missed the podium at Bathurst.

"We win or lose collectively as a team and there were other aspects we didn't do well enough and will have to improve," Dane said.

"We were fast enough to have a one-two and it's our fault we didn't."

AAP / ABC

Topics: australian-touring-cars, motor-sports, sport, bathurst-2795, nsw, australia

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