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911uk Porsche Awards 2015
Category: Porsche Motorsport
The voting is complete and taking the total of all submitted votes, the 2015 Winner of Category 5 : Porsche Motorsport is..
Mark Webber
After starting his career in Australia racing Formula Ford and Formula F4000, Mark Webber came over to Britain in 1996 and won the Formula Ford Festival.
In 1997 he raced in British Formula Three, finishing the year fourth for Alan Docking Racing. He joined Mercedes for 1998 to contest the FIA GT championship and was runner-up with five wins.
Webber got his first F1 test with Arrows the following year and also tested for European Racing, who he would join in Formula 3000 the following year.
On his official website Webber lists six moments to remember and a single 'forgettable moment' – Le Mans 1999. He contested the 24-hour race for Mercedes but was fortunate to escape without serious injury after two shocking crashes in practices, both caused by instability in the CLK racing car. Mercedes withdrew during the race after Peter Dumbreck suffered a similar accident, flipping on the main straight at 200mph.
Webber made his Formula One debut in 2002, scoring Minardi's first points in three years at his and Stoddart's home race. After his first season, Jaguar took him on as lead driver. During two years with the generally uncompetitive team, Webber qualified on the front two rows of the grid several times and outperformed his teammates. His first F1 win was with Red Bull at the 2009 German Grand Prix, which followed second places at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix, 2009 Turkish Grand Prix and 2009 British Grand Prix. By the end of 2009, Webber had scored eight podiums, including another victory in Brazil. His eight podiums in 2009 compares to only two podiums in the first seven years of his career.
He added ten more podiums in 2010, including victories in Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. Webber finished the 2010 season in third place having led for a long period, losing out to teammate Sebastian Vettel in the final race of the season. Webber added another race victory in the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, as he once again finished third behind champion Vettel and runner-up Jenson Button.
Webber partnered Vettel again in the 2012 season, outperforming him in the early season and looked to be a major title contender but fell away with no wins in the second half of the season after two in the Monaco and British Grand Prix. He finished the season in sixth position. Webber was also a long-term director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, the Formula One drivers' union.
On 27 June 2013, Webber announced he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season. He began to race for Porsche in 2014, on a long-term deal, racing LMP1 Sportscars in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Webber is one of six drivers of the Porsche 919 Hybrid, and in November 2015 he became World Endurance Champion in the #17 car, alongside Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.
www.markwebber.com
www.porscheawards.co.uk
Category: Porsche Motorsport
The voting is complete and taking the total of all submitted votes, the 2015 Winner of Category 5 : Porsche Motorsport is..
Mark Webber
After starting his career in Australia racing Formula Ford and Formula F4000, Mark Webber came over to Britain in 1996 and won the Formula Ford Festival.
In 1997 he raced in British Formula Three, finishing the year fourth for Alan Docking Racing. He joined Mercedes for 1998 to contest the FIA GT championship and was runner-up with five wins.
Webber got his first F1 test with Arrows the following year and also tested for European Racing, who he would join in Formula 3000 the following year.
On his official website Webber lists six moments to remember and a single 'forgettable moment' – Le Mans 1999. He contested the 24-hour race for Mercedes but was fortunate to escape without serious injury after two shocking crashes in practices, both caused by instability in the CLK racing car. Mercedes withdrew during the race after Peter Dumbreck suffered a similar accident, flipping on the main straight at 200mph.
Webber made his Formula One debut in 2002, scoring Minardi's first points in three years at his and Stoddart's home race. After his first season, Jaguar took him on as lead driver. During two years with the generally uncompetitive team, Webber qualified on the front two rows of the grid several times and outperformed his teammates. His first F1 win was with Red Bull at the 2009 German Grand Prix, which followed second places at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix, 2009 Turkish Grand Prix and 2009 British Grand Prix. By the end of 2009, Webber had scored eight podiums, including another victory in Brazil. His eight podiums in 2009 compares to only two podiums in the first seven years of his career.
He added ten more podiums in 2010, including victories in Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. Webber finished the 2010 season in third place having led for a long period, losing out to teammate Sebastian Vettel in the final race of the season. Webber added another race victory in the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, as he once again finished third behind champion Vettel and runner-up Jenson Button.
Webber partnered Vettel again in the 2012 season, outperforming him in the early season and looked to be a major title contender but fell away with no wins in the second half of the season after two in the Monaco and British Grand Prix. He finished the season in sixth position. Webber was also a long-term director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, the Formula One drivers' union.
On 27 June 2013, Webber announced he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season. He began to race for Porsche in 2014, on a long-term deal, racing LMP1 Sportscars in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Webber is one of six drivers of the Porsche 919 Hybrid, and in November 2015 he became World Endurance Champion in the #17 car, alongside Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.
www.markwebber.com
www.porscheawards.co.uk