By Robert Grant
November 3rd 2009 @ 2:19am
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Webber primed for a huge 2010
He’s endured seven years in a variety of uncompetitive cars but once Mark Webber stepped into the right cockpit he quickly removed all the lingering question marks.
This year he has provided an emphatic rebuff to the legion of ill-informed critics, providing the full point with a fighting second in Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Simply put, Red Bull gave Webber a car capable of winning Formula One races in 2009 and that’s what he did.
Had he had that earlier in his career there is little doubt the victories would have come.
Instead, Webber was forced to show his ability in other ways – wringing more out of Minardis and Jaguars than possibly anyone could have.
He established himself as one of the best qualifiers in the sport, even if he was continually frustrated by mechanical failures and teams big on reputation and short on delivery.
Webber achieved a delirious result for Minardi when he finished fifth in his F1 debut in Melbourne in 2002 and at the end of his best season this past weekend, he took his fans back to that Albert Park moment.
There was a certain poignancy and symmetry as he fought off newly-crowned world champion Jenson Button in the closing laps at the Yas Marina circuit to snatch second place behind teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Seven years ago Webber bravely held the Ferrari of Mika Salo at bay, as his ailing Minardi limped to fifth and his first world championship points before a riotous home crowd.
This year was supposed to be the end of the Australian – seen off after an unproductive career by the game’s new prodigy Vettel.
Vettel had a wonderful season with four wins but Webber took victories in Germany and Brazil among a collection of eight podiums and proved no easy target.
For a while he was battling Button for the championship lead before reliability problems struck but he and the team bounced back to win in Brazil and cap off the season with second in Abu Dhabi.
The Brazilian victory was vital for Webber. The cynics could easily have written off his breakthrough win in Germany as a fluke but to return to the top step again reinforced the inside notion that he could control a race to the chequered flag if the car behaved.
Webber on Sunday survived a tangle with the Brawn of Rubens Barrichello into the first turn as the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton sprinted away from pole before suffering traction problems and eventually retired with brake issues.
“Things then started to stabilise … Sebastian was a bit quicker today in the second two race stints, especially the last one,” Webber said.
“Towards the end of the race, Jenson was able to close the gap to me and I thought ‘this is going to be tight’.
“We knew we had a slight top-speed advantage, but not much and I had to make sure I was accurate with my braking points.
“We had a good clean fight on the limit and the battle was a credit to how Jenson’s driven all year.
“I want to congratulate the team on what they have achieved and thank them for their patience with me at the start of the year when I was coming back from my (cycling) accident,” he said.
“It’s been very enjoyable driving alongside Sebastian this year, Renault has given us a fantastic engine and overall Red Bull can be incredibly proud of what they have done.
“It’s been my best season to date – we’ve had 16 podiums together. It’s very good.”
Next year, though, Red Bull wants to go one step better – and team principal Christian Horner believes they will again be fighting at the sharp end.
“We’ve learned a great deal this year and we’ll come back stronger in 2010,” Horner said.
“Second is a fantastic achievement for the team. In many respects the team is still very young and it’s only our fifth season in Formula One.
“To have achieved 16 podiums, six wins, five pole positions and six fastest laps – including four one-two finishes as well as in excess of 150 points, is a massive achievement.
“I think it’s a season that members of the team can be very proud of and, although second is one place off our ultimate target, it’s still a very good result.
“We’ll learn a lot of lessons from this year, which will only make us stronger going into 2010,” Horner said.
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