While Webber was runner-up in his second attempt with Porsche, German F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg, New Zealander Earl Bamber and Briton Nick Tandy triumphed in only their second start with the team.

In contrast to the conservative approach of Webber and his co-drivers, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German Timo Bernhard, the winning trio drove their Porsche 919 Hybrid aggressively and without regard to exceeding the limits of reliability.

Throwing caution to the wind, Hulkenberg, Bamber and Tandy defied convention and their lack of experience at Le Mans to extend Porsche's record-breaking success to 17 victories – and first since 1998.

Webber, who has been with the German team since its return to top-level sports car racing last year after an absence of 16 years, noted that their abandon paid off because they were ignorant of the perils of an unrestrained attack.

"Naivety's bliss sometimes, isn't it?" Australia's former Formula 1 star said, shaking his head at the beginners' luck of the Le Mans tyros, who were brought in as an extra third entry with only one lead-up race.

"They were very intense and aggressive on all fronts, with probably not a great deal to lose."

Like so often in his 12-year F1 career, Webber, 38, had once again found himself in the right place at the wrong time.

He had helped the Porsche team hone the second-generation 919 Hybrid racer into a machine capable of ending VW Group stablemate Audi's 15-year domination of the Le Mans 24 Hours – during which it won 13 times – and was poised to reap the rewards.

But to his surprise, Hulkenberg, Bamber and Tandy were allowed to cane their car mercilessly while Webber's entry was restricted to a more orthodox strategy.

While he, Hartley and Bernhard were faster than their Audi rivals, they couldn't match the sustained pace of the eventual winners, who took control of last weekend's twice-around-the-clock marathon in the middle of the night.

"We had the tactic to go pretty easy on the equipment and everything," Webber said.

"They didn't and it paid off. They were very, very quick in the night – no one could live with them.

"We were basically a second and a half slower than them and they disappeared.

Then you're like, OK, there's still a long way to go, so stick to your guns, don't react, look after the car.

"But it was just a friggin' sprint race and they pulled it off, so it's a fine line.

Operationally, a third car was ballsy."

Judging by their unbridled assault, it appears that Hulkenberg, Bamber and Tandy were nominated as Porsche's hares to demoralise the opposition without much expectation that their 919 would survive the punishing pace.

"We didn't think the cars could take that," Webber said.

But the hare outran and outlasted the tortoises, so to speak, and the sacrificial lamb avoided the slaughter – much to Webber's unstated, but obvious, chagrin.

"It's a fine line between the White House and the shit house," he observed sourly.

However, he acknowledged that being part of Porsche's blitz of Audi was satisfying.

"Obviously, I would've loved to have won," he said. "But a 1-2 in the second year back is pretty bloody impressive. Audi are tough bastards to roll over and we cracked it. They finally ran out of bullets.

"The good thing was that it wasn't luck. We got the 1-2 because we outran them.

"There wasn't any attrition, everyone finished where they did because they deserved to. It was great to beat Audi."

Webber, who won nine F1 races, is now focused on winning the sports car world championship.

After an early run of outs in the World Endurance Championship, his runner-up finish at Le Mans lifted him to equal fifth in the points standings with his co-drivers.

He is now aiming to win the world title this year and capture Le Mans next year, when he believes Porsche will be even more formidable.

"It'd be nice to get both eventually," he said. "The world championship would be nice, definitely. We have loads of areas to improve on the car. Next year we have to further improve all the areas we've gained this year."

The next round of the eight-race WEC is the Six Hours Of Nurburgring in Germany on August 30.

Webber is at this weekend's F1 Austrian Grand Prix as a Red Bull ambassador and will also attend the British GP in two weeks.