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Five stand out moments from Mark Webber's career

Published on 13 Oct 2016 16:08
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By: Dominik Wilde

As Mark Webber announces his retirement from motorsport, we take a look back at a career that has spanned more than two decades, picking out five stand out moments:

F1 Début

Mark Webber kicked off his Formula One career in style. Racing for the unfancied, but popular Minardi team, Webber qualified 18th in the 22 car field.

A start line crash wiped eight cars from the race, and despite battling differential and launch control issues, Webber was able to climb all the way up to fifth place, holding off Mika Salo who was driving for Toyota in their first ever F1 race.

Webber's top five finish gave Minardi their first points in nearly three years, and they would only score twice more before the team was sold to Red Bull at the end of 2005.

First F1 win

Webber's first win in F1 came a day after he took his first pole position in the category. However, it was far from an easy win.

A collision with Rubens Barichello at the start of the race saw him hit with a drive-through penalty.

It didn't deter him, though, as he would go on to record a dominant victory, and Red Bull Racing's third one-two finish, and their second in a row.

Last F1 win

Webber was thrilled to win the British Grand Prix in 2012, a win that would prove to be his final race victory.

The race was dominated by Ferando Alonso who had started from pole, but a perfectly-timed pit stop for Webber allowed him to get by the Spaniard on fresher tyres late in the race fro what was looking like an unlikely victory.

"I've had a few [wins], but this one is taking a little bit to sink in," he told the BBC afterwards. "After the first stint Fernando had I thought he was in good shape to close the win out. But it came our way and I am absolutely over the moon, absolutely rapt."

Le Mans 1999

In 2013, Webber announced that he would be leaving Red Bull Racing and Formula One to race for Porsche on their return to top-level sports car racing.

Webber himself had raced prototype sports cars before, but his experience prior to the 2014 season was somewhat forgettable. Racing for the factory Mercedes-AMG team, Webber and team mate Bernd Schneider had come close to claiming the 1998 FIA GT title but in 1999 there would be no such championship challenge.

Aerodynamic deficiencies saw his Mercedes-Benz CLR flip spectacularly in both practice and warm-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Mercedes shelved their sports car programme as a result and Mark Webber would not return to Le Mans for another 15 years.

2015 WEC Championship win

Thankfully, there was no such drama in his return to sports car racing. After a quiet 2014 season which saw Porsche find their feet in the hotly-contested LMP1 category alongside Toyota and VAG stablemate Audi, Porsche dominated the 2015 season, taking six wins from eight rounds.

Webber and team mates Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley took four of those wins consecutively, emerging victorious in Germany, the United States, Japan, and China.

After coming close to winning the Formula One world championship in 2010, and finishing third\ a further two times in 2011 and 2013, Webber was finally able to lay claim to an FIA world championship crown.

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