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Supercars Sydney III

Whincup doesn't regret ignoring team orders

Jamie Whincup says he doesn't regret ignoring team orders in Sydney on Sunday even though it probably cost his Triple Eight team a win.

Whincup and T8 teammate Shane van Gisbergen found themselves in a tense stand-off in the second stint of yesterday's third and final Supercars sprint race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The pair were running second and third on an overcut strategy, each with significantly better tyre condition than leader Will Brown.

The complicating factor, however, was that van Gisbergen's tyre condition, and therefore lap speed, was slightly better than Whincup's.

The T8 pair did battle both on track and over the radio for several laps as van Gisbergen tried to get through to lead the charge against Brown and Whincup resisted.

Whincup was eventually explicitly asked to move over for van Gisbergen by team manager Mark Dutton, but refused, instead asking why van Gisbergen couldn't call off the fight and slot in behind.

The squabble delayed the T8 duo just enough to give Brown a buffer, the rookie taking his first win ahead of Whincup and van Gisbergen.

Immediately after the race Whincup explained that, due to his impending retirement, he was in no mood to give away any results.

He doubled down on that in the post-race press conference, admitting that it was a controversial decision but adamantly stating he doesn't regret the team orders snub.

“Dutto did tell me to move over, but I elected not to. There’ll be discussions over that," he said.

“When you calm down, that’s the wrong thing, I’ve probably done the wrong thing there. But it certainly wasn’t the wrong thing 20 laps into a race, it was the right thing.

“We hardly get team orders over the radio, to be honest. It wasn’t like it’s every race meeting.

“I felt like I was in the box seat to win the race. I had an extremely quick car.

“We weren’t racing #97, we were just racing the rest of the field, so we pitted to give ourselves the best opportunity to try catch Will and get the win.

“In my mind, that was my race. I was just going to do everything I could to try and win the race.

"I don't think I [went rogue]," Whincup added.

“I don’t regret anything.

“I raced as hard as I could today and that’s all I could ask of myself."

Whincup added that he doesn't feel he owes anybody an apology – or that anybody owes him and apology.

“We went out and raced. I don’t think an apology needs to go either way," he said.

"We’ll just keep working together to win the teams’ championship and of course the drivers’ championship.”

Van Gisbergen said he enjoyed going head-to-head with Whincup and would always rather settle positions on track rather than over the radio – but added that neither T8 driver winning the race was a bitter pill to swallow.

"It's pretty self-explanatory," he said. "The racer in me did enjoy it. It's a fun battle, I always love racing Jamie. We know how to keep respect and keep room.

"I don't know. I hate team orders like anyone else. But I'm gutted that one of us didn't win the race. It should have been a one-two, and that didn't happen. I was really strong at the end, drove up to them really quick and had really good car speed.

"That's the sad part, that we didn't win the race."

When asked if he expected someone to get in trouble for the incident he joked: "It won't be me for once."

This isn't the first time there's been tension between he T8 drivers this year, and, according to Whincup, may not be the last either.

"There's a good chance we'll be close to each other on the track next weekend and hopefully the same thing at Bathurst," he said.

"We run two competitive cars, there's not one at the front and one down the back. We're going to be racing each other at tines. That's what happened in Townsville. That's what happened here. That's the way it goes.

"And if you live your life trying to not expose yourself to any conflict, you should sell ice cream on the corner."

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