Zoom Webber unfortunate, fortunate, today in Belgium

Mark Webber ran well in the early stages of the dramatic Belgian Grand Prix from seventh position on the grid. However, a lunge from the recovering Heikki Kovalainen saw the McLaren Mercedes make firm contact with the Red Bull Renault forcing Webber into a spin at the final turn. Webber would race on but was unable to regain the ground and took the chequered flag ninth. Team-mate David Coulthard finished 14th.

Following the race, Timo Glock received a time penalty however and that promoted Mark Webber into the final points-paying position.

Mark Webber
“The first few laps were quite tricky due to the conditions, but our start was okay. I was running a bit short and when doing that it helps to have a clear track, but I didn’t. I lost some time behind Bourdais, who was a bit heavier, but we were still in a reasonable position. Then I got hit by Heikki (Kovalainen) and lost some time. It hurt our strategy, which was quite aggressive. The car felt best in the last stint on the prime tyres. It’s a shame we didn’t get any points today, the guys had put a lot of effort in.”

David Coulthard
“I got held up a lot behind the Hondas at the start and it was hard to make up positions from there. We have poor drivability. The changeable conditions made things interesting at the end, we could probably have changed to intermediate tyres one lap earlier. ”

Christian Horner
“A busy afternoon for the drivers and the pit crew. Mark was unlucky in the first stint of the race when he got hit following a very optimistic move by Kovalainen, which cost him a lot of time and track position. In the final laps we gambled to split the cars and left Mark on dry tyres and put David on intermediates. David had a poor start and we had elected to run a one stop strategy, anticipating variable conditions which arrived with three laps to go. Today’s result doesn’t represent the hard work that the team is putting in at the moment, but I’m sure our luck will change soon.”

Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer
“A very difficult race with mixed conditions, especially at the end. It was a hard race for the engine, which was very stressed on this track. We will cross our fingers as we still have Monza to do, which is fifty percent of the job.”

E.A. © CAPSIS International