Webber wary of “strong” Audi challenge at Nurburgring

Pre-race favourites Porsche endured a frustrating qualifying session, held in changeable weather conditions, and had to settle for the second row behind both Audi R18s.

Despite strong dry weather pace from the Porsche 919 Hybrid across practice, Webber is cautious as each manufacturer is running new aerodynamic packages that will be used for the remainder of the season.

“We seem to be performing pretty well, we’ll find out whether it’s enough,” said Webber. “Audi is certainly strong here, and they’ve done a good job. 

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ll see how the first 90 minutes [of the race] go. [The aero kit] is performing well but it’s only relative to the opposition.”

With all three LMP1-H manufacturers bringing their third and final body kit, this will be an opportunity to shuffle the pecking order in the premier class.

“We knew it was going to be a reset in the second half of the season because everyone puts on these new configurations,” Webber explained. “So it’s going to be interesting for the rest of the championship.

“As a team we’re obviously happy to have the big one – Le Mans [victory] is inside our team, which is nice, but know we’ve got another battle for the championship."

Webber might have “split” the Audis

The #1 Porsche driven by Webber and Timo Bernhard clocked an average lap of 1m39.861s, four tenths shy of the polesitting #7 Audi of Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer.

On his final run Webber was caught out by rain in the final chicane and had to cut across the run-off.

“It was tricky conditions out there,” said Webber. “No one expected to have rain at the last corners with one minute to go. That’s what really took the wind out of our sails.

“It would have been nice to complete the last lap, which was pretty competitive. At least to try and split the Audis.

“In the end it’s the same for everyone and we start from third.”