New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley has won the world endurance championship in Bahrain alongside Porsche teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard.

The trio took the title after his number 17 Porsche finished fifth in the Six Hours of Bahrain on Sunday (NZ time).

The Australian-New Zealand-German trio, who had to make two unscheduled pit stops, prevailed by five points to became Porsche’s first world sportscar champions since 1986.

The Bahrain season-ender was won by the number 18 Porsche of Switzerland’s Neel Jani, Germany’s Marc Lieb and Frenchman Romain Dumas – a victory that ensured the title for the sister car by denying rivals Audi.

“We had a lot of problems and it was very stressful. We got the car home and we had enough points and enough wins to be world champions,” said Webber, who left Formula One at the end of 2013 after Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel had won a fourth successive championship.