A DAMAGED tyre potentially cost Queanbeyan motorsport star Mark Webber a second straight World Endurance Championship podium finish, as he came in sixth at the six hours of Shanghai last Sunday.
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It came just three weeks after his team made a brilliant comeback from a tyre puncture to finish third at the six hours of Fuji in Japan, but the same could not be done again, as they failed to recover from lost time through extra pit stops.
Webber told the Porsche media that his team simply had lost too much time to catch up to the front of the race.
"We had a lot of catching up to do today and in the end it was just too much for us to gain a better position," he said.
"It was bad luck that Brendon had that puncture and, furthermore, that it happened in the beginning of the lap so he had a lot of slow driving to do to get back to the pits."
Despite the final result, which came after leading the race in the 34th lap, Webber said his team effort was hard to judge, and praised his teammates Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.
"The tyre puncture really hurt us. Brendon and Timo did a great job as did the entire crew. I think this was almost a better team effort than our third place recently in Fuji," he said.
Webber's next race will be the six hours of Bahrain on November 16.