MOTOR SPORT FORMULA ONE CHAMPIONSHIP:A LITTLE over eight months ago Mark Webber's future as a grand prix driver hung in the balance after an off-season accident left him with a badly broken leg and a long lay-off from racing in prospect. Yesterday, at the Nurburgring, the Red Bull Racing pilot completed his comeback with a battling maiden win at the German Grand Prix, overcoming an early-race penalty to become the first Australian since Alan Jones in 1981 to claim the top step of the Formula One podium.
At the end of each F1 season Webber competes in his own Tasmania Challenge race in aid of charitable causes. In 2008, it almost derailed his career, a collision with a four-wheel drive vehicle during one of the event’s cycling stages, leaving him hospitalised and in doubt for the start of the 2009 season. Even as recently as a fortnight ago, the Australian was back in hospital, having metal pins removed from his leg.
On Saturday at the Nurburgring Webber claimed his first pole position with an aggressive flying lap that, in the final moments of the session, dropped chief rivals Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button to second and third and team-mate Sebastian Vettel to fourth. Fuelled heavier than any of them, it looked the perfect platform to work from.
At the race start, though, Webber made a poor getaway and Barrichello seized the opportunity, dragging his Brawn alongside the Red Bull on the run down to turn one. Webber moved across aggressively, attempting to shut the door, and the pair banged wheels, Barrichello being shunted hard right. But while the Brazilian recovered to take the lead out of the first corner, Webber was rebounding into Lewis Hamilton, who spun out onto the run-off area, his right rear tyre flapping in the breeze.
The aggression of Webber’s start was deemed to have caused Hamilton’s problems and the Australian was hit with a 10-second drive through penalty. It should have spelled the end of his hopes but when Barrichello pitted for his first fuel stop and emerged behind the slower Ferrari of Felipe Massa, the race began to come back to the Red Bull driver. A succession of quick laps put Webber back in the fight but ultimately it was strategy and tyres that fed his victory.
Barrichello and championship-leading team-mate Jenson Button had made much over the weekend of the cold weather in Germany not having a debilitating effect on their car’s performance, as had been the case at Silverstone last time out. But in the race here those protests quickly unravelled as it became apparent Brawn had put both on a risky three-stop race, embraced to minimise the amount of time both would have to run on the tougher to run hard tyre.
With Webber sailing through a regulation two fuel-stop race, the Brawns were always hamstrung by the gambit and, with their soft tyre degrading badly and the harder compound too intractable to work with, Webber began to stretch away, leading, in the closing stages, by more than 15 seconds. The Brawns were going backwards, their final stops dropping them behind the Ferrari of Massa and the Williams of Nico Rosberg. Webber crossed the line screaming in joy at winning at the 130th attempt.
Afterwards Webber admitted it was a result he did doubt after his accident: “The leg definitely wasn’t healed at the start of the season, it was still broken and it was only the metal that was holding it in place. “I was very lucky in a few areas,” he added. “For example, Melbourne was put back on the calendar a bit and a few other things have gone my way. Even walking in the swimming pool in January was very tough. But I stayed positive. I knew from the times Sebastian (Vettel) was doing in winter testing the car was going to be quick and that really gave me motivation to get fit.
“I lost Rubens off the line and banged wheels with him, which isn’t my style normally, but my engineer kept me calm and I was able to push on.”
Webber was followed home by team-mate Vettel to record Red Bull Racing’s third one-two finish of the year a result which pushes the German into second in the championship standings.
With Button finishing fifth, Vettel is just 21 points behind the championship leader, with eight races remaining. Webber too has closed in, taking third in the standings just 1.5 points behind his team-mate.
1 Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1hr 36mins 43.310secs
2 Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault +00:09.252
3 Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 00:15.906
4 Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 00:21.099
5 Jenson Button (Britain) Brawn - Mercedes 00:23.609
6 Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Brawn - Mercedes 00:24.468
7 Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 00:24.888
8 Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren - Mercedes 00:58.692
9 Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 01:01.457
10 Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 01:01.925
11 Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India-Mercedes 01:02.327; 12. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams-Toyota 01:02.876; 13. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 01:08.328; 14. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 01:09.555; 15. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India-Mercedes 01:11.941; 16. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:30.225; 17 Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 01:30.970; 18 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren-Mercedes 1 lap r. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 26 laps r. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 42 laps. Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso, 1:33.365, lap 49.
Driver standings: 1 Jenson Button 68.0 points; 2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 47.0; 3 Mark Webber 45.5; 4 Rubens Barrichello 44.0; 5 Felipe Massa 22.0; 6. Jarno Trulli 21.5; 7 Nico Rosberg 20.5; 8. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 13.0; 9. Fernando Alonso 13.0; 10 Kimi Raikkonen 10.0; 11 Lewis Hamilton 9.0.
Constructor standings: 1 Brawn-Mercedes 112.0 points; 2 RedBull-Renault 92.5; 3 Toyota 34.5; 4 Ferrari 32.0; 5 Williams-Toyota 20.5; 6 McLaren-Mercedes 14.0; 7 Renault 13.0; 8 BMW Sauber 8.0; 9 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5.0 10. Force India-Mercedes 0.0.
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