Mark Webber is a world champion at last. Five years after narrowly missing out on the Formula One title at the final race, the Australian won the sportscar championship in nail-biting fashion, validating his move away from Red Bull to Porsche.
Webber still does not have the win he covets more than any other - the Le Mans 24 Hours - but this victory helps to right some of the wrongs of missing out in Abu Dhabi back in 2010 to his younger team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
The 39-year-old and his two Porsche team-mates Timo Bernhard and Brendan Hartley could only finish fifth on Saturday in Bahrain due to a catalogue of mechanical problems, but their Audi rivals failed to win the race, giving Webber the title.
“It was super stressful, but thank God we got our car home,” Webber said. “It wasn’t the cleanest day, but we had enough points and had enough wins this year to be world champions.
“Typically, that just shows the fighting qualities of the team. We had a hard day today, a real hard day. We had some issues that we had to manage all through the race: the engine actuator was playing up a lot.
“It was very high maintenance in the pitstops as well to try and manage it, and on track we had a lot of things we needed to keep an eye on.
“Timo and Brendon did an awesome job as well. We did what we could and it was enough."
Webber spent years fighting Vettel in Formula One, but after 2010, his challenge faded. At the end of 2013, with new hybrid regulations just round the corner, he quit motorsport's premier category, disillusioned with the rules.
Last year, his first with Porsche, he led the Le Mans 24 hours but hit mechanical trouble a couple of hours from the finish. This season Porsche won Le Mans but it was not Webber's car that came home first. This title goes some way to making up for that.
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