Zoom A dream result for the Red Bull Renault team at their home Grand Prix

While Sebastian Vettel took to the top step of the podium yesterday at Silverstone, Red Bull Renault team-mate Mark Webber stood alongside well aware that his third position on the grid had determined the eventual race result at the British Grand Prix.

The Australian racer had claimed the provisional pole position with a few minutes remaining of qualifying on Saturday but on the critical final run lost time passing Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari. This left him third on the grid with his team-mate at the front.

"I would have liked a slightly cleaner run on my last Q3 lap,” Webber explained on Saturday. “Kimi was, I don’t know, drinking some vodka or dreaming or something… I don’t know what the hell he was doing. He should have been on the right and he’s on the racing line, dreaming, so that wrecked my rhythm into Stowe, I was very tight into there and so... Anyway, no-one’s here to listen to a shopping list of excuses.”

Race day of course saw Vettel lead away from the front of the field while Webber was unable to clear second placed Rubens Barrichello as hoped on the run to the first corner. By the time he did gain the position after the first round of stops, Vettel was already well out of reach and Webber was resigned to his second position.

"Obviously it was disappointing to see Sebastian disappearing because I knew how important that situation in qualifying was which happened to me,” he said. “But anyway, I don’t think I could have got much more out of today. I said before the race, the first race is with Rubens and if that happens quite quickly then maybe I can have a race with Sebastian.”

“If my first stint was behind Rubens then Sebastian was going to have a boring race; that’s what I said before the race and that turned out to be the case. He had quite a straightforward afternoon and so did I, actually, in the end."

Webber remains fourth in the championship standings with 35.5 points after eight races and is still just 3.5 behind Vettel despite the British Grand Prix result.

"Saturday is crucial, we know that, in terms of how tight it is between the four of us, and especially in the last few events," Webber stated after taking the chequered flag 15 seconds behind Vettel. "I’m still very confident that I can haul some good points in the future. Whether it’s enough to be consistently ahead of these guys remains to be seen. I’m very happy with my performances so far this year. It doesn’t take much to turn things round, so I’m looking forward to Nurburgring. It could be mixed conditions and then we’ve got Budapest. Yeah, there are some good races coming up which will test us again."

Earl ALEXANDER
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