FP – Australia’s Mark Webber has kick-started his world endurance championship career with a third-place finish at Silverstone.
The ex-Formula One driver shared driving duties in a Porsche with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley for the rain-shortened six-hour race on Sunday.
Toyota’s Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sebastien Buemi won the season-opener, which was eventually red-flagged 38 minutes before the scheduled finish as heavy rain left standing water on the track.
Toyota were also second thanks to the efforts of Alexander Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima, who were one lap down on their team mates.
“1st day racing in my new job, teammates made my bit easy!! On the podium, take that all day long,” tweeted the 37-year-old Webber.
Webber spent 12 seasons in F1 and was third in the world championship in 2013 with Red Bull before he decided to quit and race sports cars instead.
Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey paid a surprise visit to Webber’s garage on Sunday, the design guru choosing not to go to the Chinese Grand Prix to work on upgrades at the team’s Milton Keynes factory in the UK.
The eight-round world endurance championship ends at Sao Paulo on November 30 and also includes the famed Le Mans 24 Hour Race on June 14.