Webber finishes season on a high

FORMULA ONE:MARK WEBBER claimed his first win of 2011 at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix after team-mate Sebastian Vettel was forced to hand over the lead mid-way through the race due to gearbox problems.

After coming close to winning the drivers’ title last year, this season has been a troubled one for Webber. While Vettel romped to a second championship win in a row, Webber struggled to find a sweet spot with his RB7 car. He failed to get to grips with Pirelli tyres and his driving style seemed to only exacerbate his problems.

As such he headed into the season finale in Sao Paulo with a record of nine podium finishes and a best result of second in Turkey and Belgium. When matched against Vettel’s 11 wins, 15 poles and title, the nature of Webber’s troubles becomes clear. And early in the weekend the Australian’s spirit suffered another dent as he was pipped for pole position by his team-mate by just over a tenth of a second. It was enough to hand Vettel yet another record, the 24-year-old German breaking Nigel Mansell’s 19-year-old mark for most poles in a season with 15.

Vettel had held his lead as the red lights went out and had opened up a healthy gap to second-placed Webber. But a handful of laps later Vettel’s engineer was on the radio advising the German to short shift in second – to move out of the gear early in the rev range to protect the gearbox.

That turned into a warning to do likewise across all seven gears and Vettel’s lap times dropped to almost a half a second behind Webber’s. The champion informed his team he would let himself “fall behind” and on lap 29 Webber claimed the lead and 42 laps later the seventh win of his career.

Vettel, meanwhile, gave a second-half display worthy of a champion. After being told to back off, the German soon began to drive around the gearbox problem, to the extent that despite having been passed by Webber, he began to trade fastest race laps with the Australian and had to be once again told to slow down.

At full tilt and adapting to a failing car and the threat from Jenson Button, Vettel’s cool response was to inform his engineers he felt like Ayrton Senna in 1991, the occasion of the Brazilian’s first home win, scored with a similar problem. “I had the call to manage a gearbox problem, turn down engine and short shift,” said Vettel. “It was getting worse, so I was using higher gears and that is where the comparison (with Senna) came into my head,” he added. “We had a pretty amazing season and I think it would be over the top being upset now.”

The two-time champion had come under pressure from Button in the latter stages, but, while the McLaren driver closed on the Red Bull by upwards of a second a lap, Button ran out of laps and Vettel hung on to second. Third place, though, was good enough to seal second in the championship for Button, ahead of Webber.

The important battles were being fought in the Constructors’ Championship, where finishing position determines the size of dividend from F1’s revenues.

Force India had an outside chance of catching Renault for fifth, but, in the end, Adrian Sutil’s sixth place and Paul Di Resta’s eighth left the team just four points behind the team which will next year be renamed Lotus.