Question: Mark, it has been quite a few times this season that Red Bull have been in pole position and sadly for the team it has not always turned into victory. That was the case for you today, but what happened off the line? It was a very slow getaway.
Mark Webber: I had a big bog (down) on my formation lap and then we made a small adjustment to the clutch which I thought was hopefully going to get rid of that situation but then I had it even worse on the main start itself. Did my normal procedure but in the end you need to go through it to see what happened. Obviously I was pretty surprised and once you have a micro moment on the start in a Formula One race it is massively exaggerated with the performance of the other guys getting normal starts. I was on the back foot through Eau Rouge. I had a pretty good fight with Adrian (Sutil) to start with. Got that back and passed Felipe (Massa) as well. Pretty close to having a look at Seb (Vettel) before the safety car came out. It was a pretty mixed up race after that. I think we had a good pit stop, the first one. I think the guys did a very good job there. It wasn’t quite enough to jump Robert, but very close, but once you get to the limiter on the straight it is very, very difficult to do any moves at the top and someone with Robert’s experience is going to be pretty difficult as well. Happy with second in the end. To have the top three qualifiers here after a race like today, I think you would never ever get any money on that. The order is slightly the wrong way round for me. But in the end happy with second. A good day for the team. Lewis deserved the win and did a good job.
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Question: It was the kind of race that when you are running for the championship if you cannot get the victory you have got to get as much out of it as you possibly could.
Mark Webber: Absolutely. These days it is very, very easy to come away with nothing with a small mistake from anybody, from the cockpit, pit wall or pit stops or whatever. Everyone did their bit today, so we got some good points and we go to Monza.
Question: Mark, you mentioned the clutch just now. Was there any residual problem during the rest of the race?
Mark Webber: No, it was OK. No problems with the car after that. It was pretty obvious the start didn’t go according to plan. I did the pretty normal procedure, we’ve got very good guys working very, very hard and you can’t always get them, so… Today’s run was fortunately one of the shortest to the first corner. The boxing gloves will be on if they do it again in Monza next weekend. We got away with it here. I was obviously on hold through Eau Rouge and up to the top at Les Combes on the first lap. Managed to just hold the position that I had out of La Source which was good because it’s very easy for people to get a tow on you. And then, yeah, the first lap, as you said, the rain had already arrived. The top two or three guys went across the chicane obviously, but that can happen. As Lewis says, it’s such an acute corner and very, very slippery in the braking area. We all scrambled through there. I passed Felipe on that next lap and also felt pretty good at that part of the race. And then the safety car came out. I settled in, felt pretty comfortable. Jenson looked like he was struggling for pace, so the four of us were just biding our time and looking like we had to go quite long in that stint because it only really warranted doing a pit stop if it rained or anything unusual happened. It was not really a normal grand prix in terms of strategy in that sense. So we had to hold fire a little bit longer than normal. I obviously had a crack at Robert, trying to get underneath him with the undercut; it nearly worked but obviously his boys did a good job in the pit lane too because our guys really did a good stop. From then on it was really just getting the car home. It wasn’t very easy to follow Robert, to be honest. I wasn’t that comfortable on the prime at certain points. I was actually happier when it started to get drizzly on the slicks, I felt a little bit quicker and I could close the gap a little bit. I wouldn’t say comfortable, but I felt like I could be slightly quicker than maybe Robert. Then we had the pit stops, I went a little bit long but it looks like Robert went even longer, so that was the difference between us getting in and out. It’s so easy to over-jump your pit in those conditions. Dangerous for the mechanics, but they got away with it and that’s where we got second place. Intermediates got the car home. I was hoping this guy (Lewis) would make a mistake but it’s not his first race, so I’m very, very happy with second place, to be honest, after the start I had. Sensational points, for myself.
Question: You sort of avoided the question of straight-line speed yesterday; were you happy with it in the race itself?
Mark Webber: Well, yes, I was, I think. The guys have done a very good job to get the combination right. We have the same engine as Robert. He was very competitive today, so I think all in all most cars were pretty even today. Lewis drove a very, very good first stint. It would have been interesting, obviously, if some of the rest of us were in free air, away from JB (Button) if we could hold his place. Lewis did a good first stint and if it was a normal dry race it would obviously have been his as well. But maybe answering a question we might get, we’re looking forward to Monza to see how we might go around there. We learned a bit in the race today to go forward in that event as well. I’m happy with today’s result.
Question: Mark, you now have 20 points more than your team-mate; Lewis have 35 more than yours. Do you expect that in the remaining six or five rounds that your teams will concentrate more on you instead of your team-mate?
Mark Webber: McLaren have won many championships, so they have a pretty good trophy cabinet. Red Bull have a good trophy cabinet but not one like McLaren’s, so it depends on how hungry we are to try and do that. I think it’s too early, at the moment, having said that, but maybe there is a different strategy compared to McLaren. I’m not sure but it’s still too early at the moment, but not far away, I would say.
Question: Mark, as you and Lewis are the only two contenders to score points, do you think you are sitting beside your main rival for the title?
Mark Webber: I think if you beat Lewis in the championship you are doing very well.
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