POSTED ON October 31st, 2011
Mark just missed out on a podium finish in the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. He crossed the finish line in fourth place at Buddh International Circuit, just 1.2s behind Fernando Alonso.
“It was a frustrating race,” says Mark. “As has happened so often this year, my tyres started to go off midway through each stint and that cost me a lot of time. It didn’t help that I was quick through the corners and slow along the straights compared to the guys I was racing because it made it very difficult to overtake them.”
Mark got away well from second place on the grid – on the dirty side of the grid. He snuck in behind team-mate Seb Vettel through Turn 1, but that wasn’t enough to keep him in second place. “Jenson powered past me on the long straight towards Turn 4 on the opening lap,” says Mark. “There wasn’t much I could do because the McLarens were much quicker than us in a straight line all weekend. I think they were running less downforce than us. “But my pace was good early on. Jenson was holding me up and I was confident of passing him at some stage in the race. The tyres went off towards the end of the stint, however, and that allowed him to eek away from me. It’s so difficult to keep the pressure on and not burn the tyres out.”
From then on, Mark’s attention was focused more on Alonso in fourth place and at a critical point just before Mark’s final pitstop, he was held up by a backmarker.
“The backmarker cost me a load of time just when I had a buffer to play with,” says Mark. “The hard tyres then took two laps to come up to temperature and having to pit a couple of laps before Fernando gave him track position when he stopped.”
Mark was back on Fernando’s rear wing within a few laps, but he wasn’t able to find a way past the Ferrari and onto the podium.
“Fernando’s not in his first grand prix,” says Mark, “and he’s not about to be pressured into a mistake. I tried all I could, but it was difficult to pass, even with the DRS zones. He and I have done a lot of racing together this year and we’ve got to know the shapes of each other’s rear wings pretty well!”
Like the other drivers, Mark was quick to praise the organisers of Buddh International Circuit for laying on a successful first race. “What stood out about the event was the friendliness of all the people,” says Mark. “They wanted to help and I think they were very proud to have a race here. I got an Indian flag off someone for the drivers’ parade and I waved it at the fans, which I think they loved. It’s nice for F1 to go to a new country that has massive enthusiasm for the sport.”
Mark also enjoyed his first experience of India. “I’d never been to India before and I enjoyed the trip and was pleasantly surprised,” he says. “I arrived in the country on the Wednesday before the race and was feeling quite nervous about getting through the weekend in one piece. You hear so many stories about people getting stomach bugs, but in the end it was fine.”
Mark now heads back to the UK for the first time since before the Singapore Grand Prix in September. He then heads to Abu Dhabi next week for the penultimate grand prix of the season.
Credit: Mark Webber (www.markwebber.com)
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