Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber salvaged a second placed finish in this afternoon’s Belgian Grand Prix when, after bogging down at the start and the chaotic weather conditions that followed, he crossed the line close behind eventual race winner, Lewis Hamilton.
“The start was a mess, it wasn’t ideal to lose that many positions, but fortunately it’s not Monaco or Barcelona where the positions often don’t change during the race. I was able to overtake a few guys on the first few laps and get some of the positions back – I knew the race would be quite long after that and to get second place was a good result,” he said.
“It was very challenging in the last part of the Grand Prix and it was difficult to keep the car on track. I can’t believe the top three qualifiers finished on the podium with all the changing conditions! It was a good day for me. It was unfortunate for the team that we didn’t get some more points, but we’re still leading the Constructors’ Championship and hopefully we will do in Monza.”
Meanwhile, it was a disastrous day for teammate Sebastian Vettel, who was in a strong third place chasing down the second placed McLaren of Jenson Button when he lost traction on a damp part of the circuit, spun slightly and slammed into the side of the reigning world champion.
As a result he was forced to limp back tot eh pits for a new nose while Button retired, and then he was hit with a drive through penalty for causing an avoidable accident. With that then out of the way, he had yet another incident with another driver that ended in a puncture and an eventual 15th place finish.
“What happened, happened and we can’t change it now,” he said. “Obviously I’m not proud of it, I lost the car going over the bump as I was braking and unfortunately hit Jenson, so he couldn’t continue. I’m sorry for him. We’ll have to see what we can do at the next races.”
”A great drive by Mark today, it was a very mature drive after a bad start. He recovered fantastically well and drove with great maturity at a track that we always knew would suit the McLarens,” added Christian Horner. “To come away with second place was a great result for him today – and it was great pit-work by the guys to get Mark out ahead of Kubica.”
“For Sebastian, unfortunately everything that could happen today did happen. He got pushed on to the grass on the first lap and then when he was coming back through the field was racing with Jenson. I think Jenson took him by surprise with how early he braked for the bus-stop and trying to avoid him Sebastian got into a bit of a moment and collected Jenson. He was then unlucky with Liuzzi, so not a great weekend for Sebastian.”
;)
