Van Gisbergen was sitting behind third-placed Coulthard when the DJR Team Penske driver slowed down on Conrod Straight, which put more than 40 seconds between the pack and leading drivers Jamie Whincup and eventual winner Scott McLaughlin.

In doing so, Coulthard avoided stacking behind McLaughlin in pit lane but the DJRTP driver was black flagged for giving up too much space to the car ahead.

"It's pretty obvious what happened," van Gisbergen said.

"We probably would still have had to fight it out with Jamie and Scotty, which would have been awesome, and we would have been closer. We were stuck behind so much lapped traffic but it is what it is.

"That car has been the sacrificial lamb all year," he added, in reference to Coutlhard's #12 entry.

At the time it was estimated van Gisbergen had around 10 seconds of fuel fill time advantage over Whincup and McLaughlin.

Andre Heimgartner's crash at Forrests Elbow with four laps to go brought the field back together under the last safety car of the day to set up a dash to the finish.

Van Gisbergen gave it everything he had to try and chase down McLaughlin in the one-lap sprint home under green flag conditions but the task was too difficult.

"I knew I was going to have a go. I was the same as Scotty, trying to keep as much temp as possible while saving fuel and I got through those first two corners and saw he had more grip," he said.

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"Once he got through those he had a clear run over the top, it was tough. We thought we might have been on when we could see he was trying to save more and more.

"I was heading better than the number I was given so I knew I had a bit more on those last couple of laps.

"It's a case of what could have been."

Van Gisbergen had a moment of drama earlier in the race when he hopped back into the car following a Tander stint.

The driver's door failed to shut properly after the pit stop and van Gisbergen had to continually hold it closed while racing until the issue was fixed.

Garth Tander enjoyed his new co-driver role at the Triple Eight Racing garage.

"It would have been nice to be one spot further up on the podium but I was really happy with my stints in the car," he said.

"Speed was pretty good and the team were fantastic in welcoming me into the organisation.

"They've been fantastic integrating me and it all went smoothly. We just came up a little bit short at the end. We'll try again next year."