'It's not motorsport': Shane van Gisbergen slammed by teammate

Mercedes driver Maro Engel has slammed Shane van Gisbergen after the New Zealander crashed out of the Bathurst 12 Hour race.

Van Gisbergen was in second place when he hit the wall midway through the lap with just minutes left on the clock.

After kicking tyres in frustration, a clearly disappointed Engel went straight at van Gisbergen in an interview with Channel 7.

"It's not motorsport in my book," he fumed.

"Um, yeah, gotta watch out what I'm saying. All I've seen this weekend is a lot of mistakes by Shane. Yeah, it's a tough one."

Reigning Supercars champion van Gisbergen led Ferrari's Jamie Whincup out of the pits with 40 minutes remaining, before the latter put a wheel in the dirt to take the lead.

Engel later regretted speaking out immediately, saying he would have been calmer if he had had time to consider the situation.

He didn't, however, go lighter on van Gisbergen.

"For sure (it was in the heat of the moment), it was not the best time to stick a camera in my face," Engel told Speedcafe.

"I think if you ask Shane he will agree that he made more mistakes than he usually would do. Should I have said it on live television? Probably not.

"It was very disappointing. Shane is an incredible driver and great talent and we are not used to seeing those mistakes from him, maybe that is why I got so upset.

"He has apologised to me. I’m sure he feels just as sorry for the team as everyone else.

"t is just shame to end it like that because I think we put up a great fight and we got everything out of the car and it was handling really well."

Trying to chase his Red Bull Supercars teammate down, he collected backmarker Andrew McPherson's Porsche with 31 minutes remaining, prompting a safety car and drive-through penalty.

However the sanction was never served, after he lost control heading into the dipper and put the car into the wall, destroying the car's radiator and ending his race.

"I just stuffed up," Van Gisbergen said, later adding that he was angry at himself.

"I ended up in the wall and wrecked the car. Sorry to the team and sorry to my teammates, it's not the way we wanted to finish."

The Kiwi's two incidents drew the 15th and 16th safety cars, a record for the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Toni Vilander won the race in their Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3.

Whincup's dramatic win comes in his first attempt at the endurance race, and just four months after he was denied in an appeal to attempt to win last year's Bathurst 1000.

It also marked Lowndes's second endurance victory on Mt Panorama in four years in the Maranello.

Competition Motorsport's four-man Porsche team of David Calvert-Jones, Patrick Long, Marc Lieb and Matt Campbell finished second, while Steven Kane, Oliver Jarvis and Guy Smith were third in the Bentley.

- with AAP