Some said that if Mark Webber didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all. Happily for the Aussie Red Bull driver, that was only during his first 100 Grand Prixs in Formula 1.
At Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium overnight, Webber knocked on wood, crossed his fingers and avoided all danger as he used a handy ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card and finished second after blowing the start from pole position.
Webber bogged the start as his car lost the clutch and momentarily went into anti-stall. He recovered, but battled through the first corners into sixth place as his major Championship rivals powered ahead.
“I had a big bump on the formation lap, and although we altered the clutch, it was worse at the start,” the Aussie explained.
“Once you have a micro-problem there it’s massively exaggerated by the performance of the other guys.”
However, with umbrellas a hot ticket item in Belgium during August, the inevitable rain materialised causing havoc a number of times during the race.
Opening showers saw the front runners all sail off the road into the ‘Bus-Stop’ chicane in some sort of synchronised off-roading move.
Rubens Barrichello went one worse in his 300th race, locking up into the same section and crashing into Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, putting the popular Brazilian out of the race.
Amazingly, Alonso was able to continue on, although his Championship hopes for Ferrari slimmed dramatically after he was forced to retire later in the race after crashing.
Webber’s fortunes further improved when a dramatic overtaking move on Jenson Button from Red Bull teammate Sebestian Vettel ended in tears as Vettel braked hard on the outside, realised he’d left it too late and aggressively changed lines back to the inside. The slippery track combined with the last second change of direction speared Vettel out of control into Button.
“I tried to outbrake him on the outside. When I changed from the inside to the outside I lost it under braking over the bump and crashed into him” he said. “I’m sorry, obviously it was not my intention to destroy his race or mine.”
Further rain led to more incidents, as Fernando Alonso lost it into a wall bringing out a safety car, and Robert Kubica dived into the pits with Webber in a straight mechanics race to put on wet tyres.
Unfortunately for Kubica, he somehow managed to lock it up into his pitbox, skidding past his position and costing his mechanics valuable time in changing his tyres. Webber’s smooth stop jumped him into second as the last laps of the race finished in showers.
Hamilton was able to pull away from Webber at the end of the race in deserving victory, however Webber will feel pleased to have escaped with a solid points haul and his World Championship hopes still on course.
He now trails Hamilton in the Championship by three points with six races left.
Hansie
Guest
I don't have Foxtel, so I'm reduced to reading about these events, but a maiden oval track victory would have greatly helped his championship hopes and his confidence. Here's hoping for the next couple of rounds. Briscoe has been relatively quiet this year, but still sits 4th in the championship. Again, not bad - Australian drivers 1st and 4th in the championship.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Poor old Power Hansie - did you seem him run out of fuel when Penske had a problem with their rig? Gut wrenching and really a blow to his Championship hopes - he still leads by not by quite the margin he could have been.
Hansie
Guest
A few months back Tristan raised the prospect of Australians winning the F1 (Webber), IndyCar (Power) and WSR (Ricciardo) championships. Entering the latter rounds of those championships, Webber is in 2nd place, Power is in 1st place and Ricciardo is in 2nd place. Obviously, anything can happen over the final rounds, which in the case of the IndyCar championship are all on ovals (which will disadvantage Power), but it's a far cry from the 1990s when Australians racing in the big time overseas was a pretty rare event.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Astute as ever Hansie. I thought Webber did especially well in the rain, obviously his ability to be one of the few drivers to not have an indiscretion helped, but he made up quite a bit of time on Kubica's Renault to give him the chance into fateful the pit stop for Kubica.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Gold Chris - caught this one just before: 'Nothing, though, rescued Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Jenson Button from Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, whose callow error ended the British driver's involvement in the race and pushed them both to the periphery of the title fray. The Lord giveth; Vettel taketh away.' - Jonathan McEvoy, Daily Mail
Colin N
Guest
Hamilton never made the mistakes that Vettel currently does though and in the season where he did make mistakes, he won the championship - in an inferior car.
Chris
Guest
Saw this in a British newspaper today: "Winning a GP was once about being a great driver and having a great car. Today it is about staying away from Sebastien Vettel."
Hansie
Guest
I'm more than happy with 2nd place for Webber at Spa, and I'm sure he thinks that he escaped with more points than he'd anticipated. I thought Webber drove an excellent race, staying out of trouble and keeping it clean. As for the start, I obviously don't know if Webber's problem was the car or the driver (I suspect the car), but I still worry that Red Bull/Webber make a few too many errors to win a tight championship chase. The other interesting aspect of last night was that Alonso, Vettel and Button failed to finish, so Webber and Hamilton now have a gap on the field, and it could soon be a two horse championship race. As for Vettel, he's fast but he makes WAY too many errors to win a championship. I don't think I've ever seen a driver spin into the side of the car in front. He seems several years away from having the maturity to win a title. He's had drive throughs in consecutive races, so I wonder whether the stewards will soon run out of patience and increase the penalties. All up, a great race and an excellent result for Webber.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Yes Shane, the Red Bull is mighty during qualifying but the race pace not necessarily so. Good point re Monza, you get the feeling that Webber will be smiling as he's got away with a good haul of points on one out of two of the nasty tracks for Red Bull - as the other guys have said below, Spa is really a magic place, Red Bull will surely want to try and develop a spec'd car to win there one day. Ps Don't worry, I'm pretty sure karma will be on Webbo's side for awhile, he has a looong way to go to even that out!
Tristan Rayner
Editor
You're right Andrew, a lot of the time this year the bloke on pole has lost his lead. Vettel hasn't won once from the pole! Red Bull do have a problem with their starts though, a few weeks ago there was a small story that Red Bull had made a few tweaks to Vettel's launch sequence after they found problems - back to the drawing board I think. I can still feel my pain from watching that tragedy unfold in Fuji in 2007... let alone Webber's! Vettel needs to rid himself of his impetuous nature - Hamilton is probably just as aggressive and was impetuous just a few short years ago, but he has matured into the driver who is consistently the hardest to beat in the championship I believe.
Mega
Guest
If only every Grand Prix was at Spa...
dippa666
Guest
Vettel has shown a tendency to not be able to cope well when the pressure is on. That should come with a bit of maturity but this season he has felt the pressure from his team mate and not been able to deal with it. Webber has shown that he can keep a cool head even after being punted off by his team mate. That is the biggest difference between the two this season and why Webber should go on and win this championship.
JF
Guest
Great race, love the Spa circuit, that's what a real Grand Prix track looks like. Good result for Mark, I even felt a little sorry for Kubica when he stuffed his last pit-stop after driving so well, what the hell was he doing coming in like that?
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Tristan, i'm always tempted to look away at the start of a race in which Webber has pole b/c I fear he'll lose his lead by the first corner. Unaware of the stats so perhaps I'm being a little unfair. Clearly had a technical problem this time. And Vettel is a danger to everyone at the best of times but especially in wet conditions. After being taken out by Vettel in the rain in 2007 Webber, without fear of team censure as they weren't then teammates, angrily announced: ”Well it’s kids, isn’t it. Kids with not enough experience, doing a good job then they f*uck it all up.” He's not a kid now or inexperienced but he's still 'f*cking it all up.'
Shane Moore
Roar Rookie
Definitely a great result for Webber. Most of the press had written off Red Bull's chances at Spa, with McLaren tipped to be the farourites. Pole for Webber on Saturday wasn't really reflective of their true pace, it was more a case of perfect timing, but that's all a part of F1 qualifying so it was no less deserved. Second place alone would have been reason enough to celebrate for Webber, but with championship rivals Vettel, Alonso and Button all failing to score points, it was a bloody fantastic result! As for Vettel, I have no doubt he'll be world champion one day, assuming he sticks with decent teams, but he has a long way to go before he can put a whole championship together. I liked him in the early days, even after he punted Webber out of 2nd place in Japan a few seasons back, but this year I've lost a tonne of respect for him. Let's get Monza out of the way, another track that shouldn't suit the Red Bull, then Webber can romp home through the fly-away races and finish up the season as Australia's third F1 world champ! PS. Better not jinx it... :-)
Chris
Guest
Can we just ban Vettel from F1 altogether. He causes so many incidents it isn't funny. Nice to see he has added the word "sorry" to his repertoire. It's about bloody time.