Webber withstands drama to conquer WEC

It was a long time coming but at 39 years of age Webber clinched his maiden crown of any kind in a nail-biting end to the World Endurance Championship.

The triumph was belated but just reward for Webber through his long professional career which has now been punctuated with a title that remained in the balance until the chequered flag unfurled.

After calling time on his F1 career which netted nine grand prix victories at the end of 2013, Webber climbed to the peak of prototype racing in Porsche’s 919 outfit.

The victory alongside team-mates Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard was fraught with a tense rollercoaster ride in the finale in Bahrain as the 919 experienced engine issues throughout the six hour journey.

Webber was at the wheel for the final stint with the car wheeled into the garage for a lengthy stop with just over one hour remaining.

There were more tense moments to come when the engine lost power several times in the run to the finish.

Going into the race with a 13-point buffer, Webber overcame tremendous pressure to guide a wounded 919 over the line and seal the crown by five points from chief rivals Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer in the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

Fifth place was enough for the #17 Porsche to clinch the WEC crown over the Audi which finished second behind the #18 Porsche of Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas.

Gracious in victory, Webber acknowledged the enormous hurdles the team faced after a season of 66 hours of racing.

“We had some issues we had to manage through the race. The engine actuator was playing up a lot,” Webber said.

“Typically that just shows the fighting qualities of the team. In our second year we a hard day today, a real hard day.

“It was very high maintenance in the pit stops and it was all about management for me.

“There was a lot to keep an eye on so it was super stressful.

“Timo and Brendon did an awesome job as well.

“I think we out-punched Audi as well in the end.

“It was such a hard fought race. The gloves were off and I think #7 (Audi) ran out of a bit of puff as well.”

“Thank god we got our car home. It wasn’t the cleanest day but we had enough points and enough wins this year to be world champions.”

RESULT: Bahrain 6 Hours

DRIVERS STANDINGS

1 Timo Bernhard 166 1 Mark Webber 166 1 Brendon Hartley 166 2 Marcel Fassler 161 2 Andre Lotterer 161 2 Benoit Treluyer 161 3 Marc Lieb 138.5 3 Neel Jani 138.5 3 Romain Dumas 138.5 4 Lucas di Grassi 99 4 Oliver Jarvis 99 4 Loic Duval 99 5 Sebastien Buemi 79 5 Anthony Davidson 79 6 Stephane Sarrazin 79 6 Alexander Wurz 79 6 Mike Conway 79 7 Kazuki Nakajima 75 8 Nick Tandy 70.5 9 Nico Hulkenberg 58 9 Earl Bamber 58 10 Roman Rusinov 33.5 10 Sam Bird 33.5 10 Julien Canal 33.5 11 Richard Bradley 25 11 Matt Howson 25 12 Marco Bonanomi 24 12 Filipe Albuquerque 24 12 Rene Rast 24 13 Gustavo Yacaman 19.5 13 Luis Derani 19.5 13 Ricardo Gonzalez 19.5 14 Mathias Beche 14.5 14 Nicolas Prost 14.5 15 Pierre Kaffer 13 15 Simon Trummer 13 16 Nicolas Lapierre 12.5 17 Jonny Kane 7 17 Danny Watts 7 17 Nick Leventis 7 18 Paul-Loup Chatin 5.5 18 Nelson Panciatici 5.5 19 Ryan Dalziel 5 19 Scott Sharp 5 19 David Heinemeier Hansson 5 20 Oliver Webb 4.5 20 Pierre Ragues 4.5 21 Ed Brown 4 21 Jon Fogarty 4 22 Johannes van Overbeek 3.5 23 Tom Dillmann 3 24 Jean-Marc Merlin 2.5 24 Erik Maris 2.5 24 Jacques Nicolet 2.5 25 Alexandre Imperatori 2.5 25 Dominik Kraihamer 2.5 26 Vincent Capillaire 2.5 27 Archie Hamilton 2 28 Daniel Abt 2 29 Nick Heidfeld 2 30 Chris Cumming 1.5 31 Zoel Amberg 1 32 Matheo Tuscher 0.5 33 David Brabham 0.5 34 Tsugio Matsuda 0 34 Mark Shulzhitskiy 0 34 Lucas Ordonez 0 34 Tiago Monteiro 0 34 Christian Klien 0 34 Michael Krumm 0 34 Max Chilton 0 34 Olivier Pla 0 34 Laurens Vanthoor 0 34 Alex Buncombe 0 34 Vitantonio Liuzzi 0 34 Kevin Estre 0 34 Harry Tincknell 0 34 Jann Mardenborough 0