Webber Not Happy With Fifth
By Ian Lockwood
May 9 2009
After failing to make it past the first cut in qualifying at Bahrain two weeks ago, Mark Webber returned to the top 10 in today’s official qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and will start tomorrow’s 66-lap race in fifth position.
Webber’s Red Bull Racing team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, turned heads with a stellar performance, the 21-year old German almost taking pole position only to be pipped in the final seconds by Brawn GP’s Jenson Button
With the championship entering its nine race European phase and the production of development parts in full flow, there was much anticipation as to whether the old guard such as Ferrari and McLaren would be able to make any significant gains on the early season pace-setters Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing. Today’s qualifying didn’t provide any conclusive answers; McLaren struggled with Heikki Kovalainen going out in Q1 and Hamilton in Q2, while Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen failed to make it past Q1 but Felipe Massa did go through to Q3 and will start fourth in his KERS-assisted car – Ferrari the only team running KERS in Barcelona.
Webber was the fastest of the two RBR cars in yesterday and today’s practice sessions although there was never much between the two, Webber 12th fastest in P1 with a time of 1min 22.934s and Vettel 13thjust 2/100ths behind. Webber ran regularly at the front in P2, setting a number of purple sector times before winding up in fifth position with a time of 1min 22.027s, his last run thwarted by a small problem with the rear of the car
Q1 saw Webber leaving it until late before setting the second quickest time overall of 1min 20.689s before stringing together three tidy purple sectors to move into provisional P1 in Q2 with a 1min 20.007s. Webber was ultimately toppled by Rubens Barrichello who lapped in 1min 19.454s, a mere 2/10ths of a second splitting the top five!
Q3 looked promising for Webber, his first lap of 1min 21.936s on scrubbed tyres putting him second fastest. However, although he improved to a 1min 21.049s once he botled on a new set of rubber, it was only good enough for fifth place.
“No, I’m not that happy with how qualifying ended up,” said Webber, “I’d like to be a bit further up and maybe I could have got a little bit more out of the car in Q3 but I was pretty happy with my lap to be honest. As it turned out, it wasn’t good enough. We’re on the right side of the grid for the start tomorrow and we’re clearly in a position to get some points – so I’m hoping for a better afternoon tomorrow.
“The performance of the car is still at a high level which is a real credit to the team for the work they’ve done and also to Renault on the engine front.”
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Williams and proud of it.
I hope your right about Mark because I have the feel that once he gets that first win out of the way he will perform at the level we have anticipated for sometime now.
At the moment I think he's a little afraid of farking it up and losing his drive right when he's got a good car.
________________________
Mark Webber - WINNER 2009 German Grand Prix!
Quote:jez33
Mark just needs to work out how to handle the Q3 pressure.
You must be joking right...
Q3 is where Mark is getting beaten convincingly, and it isn't because he is slower than Seb.
Mark needs to find some of the driving consistency he showed in the first half of 2008.
Quote:5-0 "is" a big deal.
5-0 actually isn't a big deal. Is it impossible for a situation to be that Mark would rather always start a race with a more fuel on board as opposed to Seb.
If that is the case then 5-0 means nothing and the team would know that.
and when Webber was not close to Vettel was only because Webber was blocked by Force India in the first part of qually...so yeah no big deal.
Marks race drives have been good so far, circumstances against him really, but he's had two clear runs in Malaysia where I thought he was very good and China where I think he was about 10 seconds from mind bendingly exceptional.
Arguements can be made to say he's cracking (I can think of perhaps two people who may make those?) and some can be made in the other direction. Perhaps if I was a BMW supporter who didn't pay any attention to RBR I'd be well on the bash Mark wagon, but I'm not and I'm yet to be convinced either way, and don't think I'll ever be.
All that said, I'm more than happy to laugh at other drivers - chortle at Bourdais.
http://www.patronisef1.com - My solution to F1's 'bore' problem.
I think Mark might be due for a good start too!!
Quote:jez33
You disagree?
Q3 is where Mark is getting beaten convincingly, and it isn't because he is slower than Seb.
no...i dont disagree. I think we're both on the same page with wanting Webber to qualify better. I was thinking more to the extent that he knows how to handle q3 pressure. He's a seasoned pro at hot laps. I guess its just bugging me that a terrific qualifier is getting bettered at this stage.