POSTED ON August 29th, 2011
Mark repeated last year’s finishing position in the Belgian Grand Prix when he finished second in today’s 44-lap race, this time though cementing the 10th one-two finish of Red Bull Racing’s history. At one stage in the race Mark was back to 12th place, but proved once again he’s a fighter in the old-fashioned mould and he never gave up in difficult circumstances.
“Given everything that happened in the race,” says Mark, “second was a good result. We noticed after qualifying a lot of wear on the soft tyres that Seb [Vettel] and I had used in Q3 and we had to manage that wear in the race. It wasn’t easy and the team can feel very satisfied with this result.”
Wet weather on Friday and Saturday meant there had been next to no dry running prior to the race. Mark fitted dry tyres for Q3 and looked set for pole position, until his option rubber started to go off in the dying moments of the session. He lined up third on the grid, but quickly went backwards at the start of the race after his car bogged down away from the line. He lost a load of places and was in eighth at the end of the opening lap. “When I released the clutch at the start,” says Mark, “the anti-stall kicked in. It was very frustrating and something similar happened to Seb [Vettel] as well, so we’ll look into what happened to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Mark was the first of the front-runners to pit, on lap three, and he rejoined the race in 12th place. He then started one of the most impressive charges of the entire race, quickly picking off the cars ahead, and he was up to third when the Safety Car came out on lap 13.
“The medium tyre performed much better than at some other tracks we’ve raced on,” says Mark. “It meant I was able to maintain a good pace. “I was expecting to pit during the Safety Car period and the team even asked me to put the car in its pitstop modes. But a communication problem meant I didn’t come in and that forced me to do a mammoth 28-lap middle stint.”
The other front-runner following a similar two-stop strategy was Fernando Alonso, with whom Mark was enjoying a race-long duel. Their battle had already left audiences breathless on lap nine. “On that lap we were side-by-side on the approach to Eau Rouge, both of us using KERS,” says Mark. “Contact wasn’t an option and one of us had to lift. I had the slightly better line, so it was Fernando who backed off first. He’s a world-class driver and he knows when enough is enough, but it was still one of those moments when I held my breath!” Mark went on to cross the finish line 3.7s behind team-mate Vettel and set the fastest lap of the race on lap 33. “I would have preferred the 1-2 to be the other way around,” says Mark, “but Seb drove a good race. All it means is that I’ll have to wait a bit longer to win my first race of the year.”
Credit: Mark Webber (www.markwebber.com)
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