Very interesting what Mark said just after the race
Mark said:
WEBBER GUTTED AFTER VITTEL ENDS THE AUSSIE'S SUPERB PERFORMANCE
30 September 2007 | 8:06pm
Mark Webber's heroic efforts in today's rain-affected Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji ended in bitter, bitter disappointment on lap 46 out of 67 when the Red Bull Racing driver was wiped out of second place by Torro Rosso's rookie driver, Sebastian Vettel, while the race was under the control of the Safety Car. Up until that point, Webber had done a brilliant job, overcoming a nasty dose of sickness, thought to be either food poisoning or a bug, which had almost forced him to retire from the race in the early stages. Nevertheless, he recovered sufficiently to be able to continue and managed the tricky track conditions superbly to work his way up into second place behind McLaren driver and world championship leader, Lewis Hamilton.
After torrential rain all morning which continued as the race approached, race organisersannounced that the Grand Prix would commence under the Safety Car. Webber, who had qualified seventh, slotted into fifth place when the Ferrari pairing of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen pitted for tyresearly under the Safety Car behind Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Nick Heidfeld and Jenson Button. However, a collision between Button and Heidfeld seconds into the race proper on lap 19, forced Webber to stop in avoidance and this allowed Vettel through into third spot behind the two McLaren drivers. Webber was lapping quicker than Vettel as track conditions improved marginally and by the time Alonso and Hamilton had made their one and only pit stop of the race, Webber was up into second place, less than three seconds behind Vettel. The young Torro Rosso driver pitted on lap 31 and Webber upped his pace as he took over the lead of the race, some 25 seconds ahead of second placed Heikki Kovalainen.
Webber pitted on lap 36 and such was his earlier pace he re-emerged in fifth place having jumped Vettel in the stops and was almost five seconds down the road from the German. Once Kovalainen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Webber's team-mate, David Coulthard had all pitted, Hamilton led from Webber and Vettel. However, there was to be yet another twist in the race when Alonso crashed heavily on lap 43, necessitating another Safety Car period. As is the norm, the cars held station behind the official pace car but inexplicably Vettel careered into the back of Webber, putting the Australian out of the race on the spot.
"That was a completely disastrous finish," said a crest-fallen and angry Webber afterwards, "We were in very, very good shape to challenge Lewis for first today. We were strong and I didn't make any mistakes despite the tricky conditions; cars were aquaplaning and the visibility was very poor. Fernando's crash caused the second Safety Car stint which bunched everyone back up again. That wasn't great; I would have liked to have continued to race to the end. Vettel was a bit wild behind me during the first safety car period and then did a very good job of hitting me very hard under the second safety car. I think today he will have learnt a very valuable lesson but it came at my expense. Today could have been so good for both of us and our teams. With David also getting points, Red Bull could have come away from today's race in fourth place in the championship..."
The F1 circus moves onto Shanghai, China next weekend for the penultimate round of the championship.
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http://www.markwebber.com/news/details. ... 3D9%2D2007now he blaming Lewis
