By Benjamin Conkey
July 14th 2009 @ 2:07am
Related coverage
Webber’s first win was breathtaking
Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing sits in his car as he prepares to practice for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, Friday March 27, 2009. The Australian Grand Prix will take place on March 29. (AAP Image/Martin Philbey" title="Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing sits in his car as he prepares to practice for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, Friday March 27, 2009. The Australian Grand Prix will take place on March 29. AAP Image/Martin Philbey
It seemed fitting that Mark Webber’s first win in Formula One was anything but straight-forward. His victory wipes away eight years of misfortune as reliability problems have followed his cars like a disease. His bad luck has been so frequent that journalists could almost save a story template and insert the reason why he didn’t finish a particular race.
Even out of the car, he has been unlucky, breaking his leg last year when cycling for charity.
His lowest moment, though, probably came in 2007 at the Japanese Grand Prix when he was on the verge of victory in a rain affected race, only to be taken out by Sebastian Vettel.
The other night at the Nurburgring, you would assume that this bad luck was about to continue.
After agressively moving into Rubens Barrichello off the line, Webber was given a drive-through penalty. “That’s it, race over”, or so I thought. He probably thought so, too.
I don’t know how many drivers have won a race after receiving a penalty, but it wouldn’t be a big list. How angry he would of been at that stage?
But with his blood boiling, Webber produced some Schumacher-esque driving.
He was helped by Felippe Massa holding up Barrichello. But still, to catch up so quickly after making an extra sojourn to the pits was remarkable. What a moment!
He is the first Aussie to win an F1 race since Allan Jones in 1981.
The sheer elation he expressed over the radio when he won was a release of all the frustration. In the post-race press conference, Webber made mention of those who doubted him. He has indeed silenced the critics and brushed the monkey off his back.
Looking forward, there’s still plenty of time remaining in the season and Webber is capable of challenging for the championship.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Webber has always been so open to the media, even immediately after crashing out of a race. The only time he lashed out was that 2007 disappointment when he had some choice words to say about Vettel.
The journalists can now create a new template, one to be used when Webber wins.
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Brett McKay said | July 14th 2009 @ 9:27am | Report comment
yep, great piece Ben, as far as well-deserved success goes, it doesn’t come much higher than it did for Webber. I had to laugh at the end of the telecast, Darryl Beattie made the comment that the last time the Australian National Anthem was played ater a GP, it was probably on vinyl!! But then as several news bulletins pointed out last night, when Alan Jones won his last GP in 1981, God Save The Queen was still the anthem!!
The FIA would have had to break the plastic wrap on the CD before hitting ‘Play’…
Chop said | July 15th 2009 @ 2:46pm | Report comment
It was very impressive, thanks to newly acquired ONE HD I managed to watch it live. I thought the drive-through penalty was a bit tough, the commentators at the time said it was a 50-50 call. For him to come back and win was a great effort from him and a massive stuff up from Brawn in using a 3 stop strategy which Barracello was critical of after the race.
Benjamin Conkey said | July 15th 2009 @ 4:51pm | Report comment
Yeah I recently acquired a HD tuner TV Chop..and I must admit I was impressed with ONE’s F1 coverge. The hour preview show is great..although I missed a lot of it due to the cricket.
I’m still waiting for someone to find out how many times a driver has come back from a penalty (any sort) to win a race? They need to have a StatsGuru service for F1.