MOTORSPORT: Webber world title took true grit

Webber's Big Win
At last Mark Webber is a world champion.

But, as with so many things in 39-year-old Webber’s career, it didn’t come easily.

The Porsche 919 Hybrid sports car he raced in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) had to survive a couple of big scares on the way to the fifth place in the final round at Bahrain that ultimately was enough to clinch the drivers’ title for Webber and his teammates, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German Timo Bernhard.

About the same time Webber’s nemesis from the latter half of his Formula 1 career, Sebastian Vettel, enjoyed another success, winning the Race of Champions in London.

That was a fun event but results-wise disappointing for Australia’s representatives, Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Doohan.

The WEC final – on the Middle East desert island Bahrain, where the rain forecast last week did not eventuate – was the serious, high-stakes international competition of the weekend for Australia.

Webber’s title – his first in any form of car racing in a career of more than two decades and included nine F1 grand prix wins – was secured by Porsche’s other 919 Hybrid winning in Bahrain ahead of the Audi trio who could have stolen the drivers’ championship.

Bernhard had to pit the Webber car only half an hour into the six-hour race because of a throttle actuator problem and it lost five laps during almost 8:45 minutes in the garage.

It was all uphill from there, but mid-race one of the Audi R18 e-tron quattros had trouble too, losing even more time.

Importantly, the other Porsche – driven by France’s Romain Dumas, Switzerland’s Neel Jani and Germany’s Marc Lieb – worked its way ahead of the Audi that was in the title fight, driven by Switzerland’s Marcel Fassler, Germany’s Andre Lotter and France’s Benoit Treluyer, and took the chequered flag 85.3 seconds clear.

Webber drove the last 85 laps in his Porsche but that long stint included an unscheduled stop when the actuator played up again and concerns that the car would go the distance – and at the necessary pace – as it intermittently lost power due to problems with its front-wheel hybrid system.

It ended nine laps down, but still two laps ahead of the second Audi, while Toyota’s two TS040 Hybrids took third and fourth – both three laps down, the first of them with the retiring dual Le Mans 24-Hour winner and ex-F1 driver Alex Wurz of Austria in it.

Even though there had been some assistance from team orders in the previous couple of races, Webber displayed in Bahrain the Aussie grit for which he is renowned in finally becoming a champion.

“It’s amazing that we were able to win the world championship under pressure like this,” a happy and relieved Webber said after the finish.

“The pitstops we had in the garage were extremely stressful.

“The gloves were off and I think Audi ran out of a bit of puff as well.

“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.”

Audi had won the first two six-hour races of the eight-round WEC at Britain’s Silverstone and Belgium’s Spa, but Porsche claimed the “crown jewel” with a one-off third entry at France’s Le Mans 24-Hour in June and the remaining five six-hour races.

Webber, Hartley and Bernhard won four races straight at Germany’s Nurburgring, the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, Fuji in Japan and Shanghai in China to give Porsche the manufacturers’ championship with a round to spare in only its second year back in top-level sports car racing.

The trio went into the final race with a 13-point lead in the driver standings but that gap narrowed to five points with the best of the Audis second and Webber and co. fifth in Bahrain.

World Endurance Championship final driver points after all eight rounds –1. M. Webber (Australia), B. Hartley (New Zealand), T. Bernhard (Germany), Porsche 919 Hybrid, 166 points; 2. Andre Lotterer (Germany), Benoit Treluyer (France), Marcel Fassler (Switzerland), Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 161; 3. Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland), Marc Lieb (Germany), Porsche, 138.5; 4. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil), Loic Duval (France), Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain), Audi, 99; 5. Antony Davidson (GB), Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland), Toyota TS040 Hybrid, 79; 6. Alex Wurz (Austria), Stephane Sarrazin (France), Mike Conway (GB), Toyota, 79; 7. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan), Toyota, 75; 8. Nick Tandy (GB), Porsche and Oreca, 70,5; 9. Earl Bamber (NZ), Nico Hulkenberg (Germany), Porsche, 58.

WEC manufacturer final standings – 1. Porsche 344 points; 2. Audi 264; 3. Toyota 164.

Vettel is Champion of Champions
Six times Sebastian Vettel had won the Nations Cup at the Race of Champions with German countryman Michael Schumacher from 2007 to 2012, but now he is the Champion of Champions.

Team Germany, comprising Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg, had lost this year’s Nations Cup at London’s Olympic Stadium on Friday night to Team England, comprising touring car aces Andy Priaulx and Jason Plato.

But four-time F1 world champion Vettel took the individual honours on Saturday, defeating Denmark’s “Mr Le Mans” Tom Kristensen, the record nine-time winner of the 24-Hour French classic.

Vettel pipped Kristensen in the first of the best-of-three final in which they raced Radical SR3 SRXs.

The second race was to be in 1.1-litre ROC Cars, but Kristensen’s dumped oil on the pursuit cycling-style circuit, causing a delay and a switch to KTM X-Bows.

Kristensen then clipped the barrier at the start of the race and Vettel took an easy victory, making him the champion.

On the way to the final Vettel had eliminated rally and rallycross superstar Petter Solberg, countryman Hulkenberg and last year’s ROC champion David Coulthard.

Vettel said the ROC was “a lot of joy” for the competitors from various forms of motorsport.

“When we were kids starting to race we did it for pure joy and this sort of event is a good reminder of that,” Vettel said.

“I’ve tried to win this many times and failed many times, but finally I’ve succeeded.

“The format (driving eight types of cars) is very difficult because no one gets much time in the cars, so you need to find your rhythm quickly.”

Kristensen has made the ROC final four times without winning and conceded that Vettel was “really on it” in London.

In the semi-finals Kristensen ousted Brit Alex Buncombe, the Nissan GT driver and co-driver of the carsales.com.au Nissan Altima with Todd Kelly in this year’s V8 Supercar Endurance Cup in Australia.

Daniel Ricciardo came up against Vettel in the Nations Cup semi-finals but narrowly lost to the man he upstaged when they were Red Bull Racing F1 teammates last season, while Mick Doohan was beaten by Hulkenberg.

In Saturday’s round of 16 Ricciardo was defeated twice by Hulkenberg while Doohan lost to the winner of the ROC Factor social media vote Bradley Philpot.