Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber was delighted to score the second podium finish of his Formula One career in Sunday’s incident-packed, rain-lashed European Grand Prix, the Aussie racing to a superb third. This result was not only Mark’s second podium but the second ever podium finish for the Milton Keynes based squad.  

The race was held amid changing weather conditions and after bedlam occurred due to rivers of water on the circuit, the FIA, had no option but to suspend the race and re-start it under the Safety Car once everyone had re-assembled on the grid. Some were luckier than others; the majority of those who came to grief at turn one were instantly out of the race but McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was helped back onto the circuit by a crane and drove his way to the back of the grid! Also fortunate were BMW pairing, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, who had clashed twice on the opening lap; their mechanics were busy making repairs as the grid lined up!

At the re-start, Webber was nicely placed in fourth position despite a poor get-away at the original start but got past teammate David Coulthard and settled behind Massa and Alonso in third. However after the switch back to dry tyres, Kimi Raikkonen got ahead of Webber while Alexander Wurz was right on the Red Bull drivers tail in fifth. Wurz though, had his mirrors full of the charging Heikki Kovalainen who nipped past the Williams driver on lap 18 and started to reel Webber in hand over fist.

The gap came down to less than half a second but try as he might, the Finn was unable to find a way through and he pitted soon afterward leaving Wurz to take the challenge back to Webber. Their battle for fourth place became the battle for third when Raikkonen slowed and retired, but Mark stayed in control all the way to the chequered flag, despite a slight waver on the final lap.

 “I lost a lot of time to Alex in the first corner on the last lap when I braked and the front right just locked up,” explained Webber. “At the NGK chicane, when I started braking, I think the rears were so heavily grained that the engine braking was having a bit of fun trying to cope. I locked the rears quite heavily and so then I had to be quite defensive to finish the lap. But Alex was fair, we fought hard and clean and we both enjoyed the battle. This is a podium I can enjoy. We benefited from a bit of attrition – I must admit I wasn’t too disappointed when I saw Kimi retiring – but we still had to complete a 300km race and we were there at the finish with both cars. That’s called for a great effort from everyone and today’s result is really for the team.”

Webber’s six points combined with the four earned by his team-mate, David Coulthard, has pushed Red Bull Racing into sixth place in the Constructors Championship, two points behind WilliamsF1. Webber is now joint 10^thin the Drivers Championship with eight points.