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Red Bull’s Mark Webber has unleashed a verbal barrage at Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen after surviving a terrifying 300km/h flip during the European Formula One Grand Prix in Spain on Sunday.
The Australian walked away after his car clipped the rear of the Lotus while trying to overtake, flew high into the air and somersaulted into a tyre barrier.
It was a frightening flashback to Webber’s two incidents during the 1999 Le Mans race when his poorly-designed Mercedes FIA GT car twice took off at a similar speed down the famous Mulsanne Straight.
While his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel went on to win in Valencia from the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, Webber, who had made a slow start from second on the grid, had been trying to thread his way through the field.
As he was about to pounce on Kovalainen on lap 10 he said the Finn braked early, leaving him nowhere to go.
“Going down the back straight he went a little bit to the left, so I thought maybe he’s going to let me go,” Webber said.
“I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, whether he was going to release me, because sometimes it’s happened before that when you catch those guys they don’t put a fight up.
“Then he went back to the right, so I thought okay, he’s going to fight.
“I was in the slipstream, I looked to the left, then he went back left, and then as soon as I looked right, he braked.
“It was so far before the braking point, it was 80 metres earlier than my previous lap – I couldn’t believe it.
“In a Formula One race if you have someone braking that early, things like that can happen.”
Webber said he was off the ground for such a long time he was trying to think of what obstacles he might end up striking.
“My car felt like it was airborne for a long time,” he said.
“I had time to worry about whether there were any bridges at that point on the track, which, luckily there weren’t.
“If there had been one, I would have hit it because I went pretty high. But the car stood up to the accident well.
“This chassis number four has been good to me. I used it to win back-to-back races in Barcelona and Monaco, and now it’s saved me from serious injury in Valencia.
“I have a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise I’m fine.
“What’s frustrating was that this accident should never have happened. I understand as well as anyone that F1 isn’t a charity event.
“You have to fight for every position, but not when you’re five seconds off the pace and you have one of the quickest cars in the pack behind you.
“I mean, how long was Heikki going to stay ahead of me? Another 15 seconds? He must be asking himself whether it was worth it.”
Vettel’s win has propelled the German to third in the drivers’ championship behind Hamilton and Button and left Webber in fourth but he says the points difference is “nothing”.
“There’s still everything to play for,” he said.
To be 24 points behind Lewis is nothing when you consider that I scored 50 points in the space of eight days a few races ago.”
Kovalainen, who described Webber’s accident as “hardcore”, defended his position.
“I was going really well, pulling away from the guys behind by about half a second a lap, and with Mark we were racing for position so I was always going to defend,” he said.
“I didn’t do anything wrong and he just ran into me. I think he missed his braking point and he ran into me at a very bad angle.
“His front tyre hit my right rear and he took off.”
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