"Man, this place and all the support here makes you lift," van Gisbergen said. "It is such as awesome feeling to have so many Kiwi fans. I am glad to get one, hopefully we can get another."
The race was shaped by a safety car which forced two strategies on the field – those who stopped before and those who stopped after. Van Gisbergen took the latter approach, and Whincup the former.
Championship leader Scott McLaughlin finished fourth, behind David Reynolds in what was a largely uneventful race for the pair who started side by side.
When Mark Winterbottom stopped suddenly on track having somehow run out of fuel after only 12 laps, it mixed the field up between those who had already done a pit stop and the others who got the chance under the safety car.
Fabian Coulthard was an early stopper with less fuel on board and assumed the lead from Anton de Pasquale and Whincup, all cars who needed to do a longer second stop.
Whincup was able to take advantage of some oil on the track which tripped up Coulthard to allow the seven-time champion the lead, although both drivers were amongst a handful who stopped early.
As the race settled and stops were done Whincup retained the lead from van Gisbergen only after Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert, who are teammates, clashed with each other, taking Mostert out of the running with front end damage.
Van Gisbergen got past his teammate soon after, taking the lead he maintained to the flag.
All five Kiwis crossed the line in the top 10, with Andre Heimgartner eighth and Richie Stanaway a season-best 10th.
The result has shaken up the championship leaderboard, with McLaughlin now leading by 586 points from van Gisbergen, who leapfrogged Mostert and Coulthard into second.
Mostert's collision with Waters has seen him slip back to fourth while Whincup remains in fifth ahead of Reynolds.
As it happened:
