Red Bull hand Mark Webber guarantee over team orders
Page last updated at 16:44 GMT, Thursday, 21 July 2011 17:44 UK
Webber is confident he will be able to race team-mate Vettel
Red Bull have assured Mark Webber that his team-mate Sebastian Vettel will not be the sole beneficiary of team orders.
Webber was furious that he was told not to try to overtake the German for second place at the British Grand Prix.
But Webber said Red Bull boss Christian Horner had "guaranteed me if it was the other way round, if Seb was closing on me, he would have shut the race down".
He added: "It's not often that you are closing on the last few laps. We are still free to race most of the time."
Australian Webber is the nearest challenger to championship leader Vettel, but he is 80 points behind and he will be desperate to finish ahead of his team-mate at the German Grand Prix this weekend.
His showing at Silverstone last time out has boosted his confidence, although Webber expects the winner of that race, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, to be a threat once again.
"I'm confident that I can do well. It's a good track and I like it a lot. There could be key decisions to make on tyres and how you tackle the whole weekend," said the 34-year-old.
"I'm feeling really good. The momentum has been coming for me off the back of a strong weekend in Silverstone, particularly off the back of qualifying. Valencia was also quite positive for me. I'm looking forward to it even if it's wet.
"But it wasn't a one-off for Ferrari [at Silverstone]. Fernando has been the one who has been consistent with Sebastian and myself over the last four or five weeks.
"Ferrari have improved a lot - it's not a one-off and incredibly unlikely that it'll be their only victory of the year."
Webber is now only 12 points ahead of Alonso in the standings and he believes there is little between himself and the Spaniard as they both aim to pressurise Vettel.
"It's pretty even really. We need to continue to make it as difficult as possible for Sebastian to run away with it. Maybe Seb will destroy all of us again this weekend."
Vettel has never won a German Grand Prix but he appears to be in confident mood to clinch his first success - and what would be his seventh race win of the season.
He said: "It's always great to have the opportunity to race in front of your home crowd and of course I'm looking forward to it. People talk about extra pressure but to be honest it's more positive than anything else.
"It has been fairly tight all year, especially with the last three races, and it's difficult to say who here will be the strongest. But we have a good chance. We seem to like the track and we had good race pace two years ago.
"At this stage, we are as confident as we can be."
Credit: BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)
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