Question: Mark, second today and increased championship lead. All in all a good day at the office.
Mark Webber: Absolutely. Very good day for me. It was close with Seb in qualifying. We know how crucial that is, so after that it was probably going to be difficult for me to win the race unless I got the start. I got a little bit of luck when Robert (Kubica) had the wheel nut come off. I could see it for most of that first lap and there was some debris coming back towards me, so I was pretty keen to pass him. I asked permission off Charlie (Whiting) to see if I could pass under the safety car but in the end Robert pulled over. Then after the restart it was just basically… it is a beautiful track but it is basically a formation finish. Both Sebastian and I just following each other around and it is very difficult to get much closer. Anything around about a second or second-and-a-half is about as good as it’s going to get around here, so very happy with how I drove this weekend. Congratulations to Seb. He deserves the victory as he did a good job and Fernando didn’t drive too bad either for third. All in all a good day for all of us and I am very happy with my position.
Question: As you said, you did get very close to Seb. At times taking almost a second a lap, sometimes over a second a lap from him. When you got that close to him was it a case of the circuit not allowing you to overtake or was it that the tyres had started to go off by that point?
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Mark Webber: Circuit, and also we were mindful if I kept going into the back of Sebastian then we were coming along with Jenson as well. All that together I needed to make sure that if JB stayed out a long, long time and I didn’t have any tyres left trying to put pressure on Sebastian… even though Jenson wasn’t really in the race, for the lead, but he was potentially going to play a role in backing us up against Fernando, so I needed to get the balance right. It was fun to bring the gap back down to Seb and after that track condition is king. I know the rules and that’s how it is.
Question: Mark, quite a difficult balance for you, because you didn’t want to put too much pressure on Sebastian, I guess, but you were being pushed quite hard by Fernando at the end.
Mark Webber: Yeah. First of all, quite a tight fight in qualifying. Obviously it’s very important to get pole here in Suzuka, so Seb did a good job there, very close between us, but in the end he got the pole. And then Robert got an incredible start, the best start out of the top five, just like an absolute cannon off third on the grid and he had a problem behind the safety car, and that obviously released me to allow Seb and I to go away together on the soft tyre in the first stint, so both of us could do that reasonably comfortably. Then we came to the stops, I had a lot of traffic on my ‘out’ lap, so that was really the only downside, I don’t think I could have done too much better. Then it was just close the gap down a bit to Seb and then it was Jenson controlling our pace in a way, because we knew that he was having to have a stop and he wasn’t absolutely flying – he wasn’t too slow but he wasn’t that quick – so we had to pace ourselves onto the back of him, and then when he pitted, we could finish off the race. But basically it was a formation finish, from lap nine. It was very difficult for me to do anything about Sebastian in terms of overtaking, virtually impossible, both very even, same cars. The team have done a phenomenal job and I’m very, very happy with second place, so it’s a great result for the team.
Question: Mark, you’re still in the lead of the championship but who is your main rival, do you feel?
Mark Webber: Oh look, two weeks ago it was Lewis (Hamilton), then it was Fernando. It’s chopping and changing, but the most important thing is that the gap is going the right way. I need to keep it like that. We’ve got three races to go and it’s a good result for me. Seb deserved the victory today, did a good job, but as we’ve seen this year, five of us are capable of winning races – well, four in the dry, Jenson’s had a few races in the wet conditions but in the dry conditions it’s been four of us who can win. I need to win again in the future. I’m very confident I can do that, and that would be beneficial, of course, but also reliability can still yet play a role, many things, circumstances, lots of different things. There are 75 points to go. Obviously these guys have a bit less because they’re a few behind, but in the end, confident.
Question: Mark, when Sebastian pitted, you had an extra, very quick lap. Was it ever considered staying out for one or two more laps, so that you might attack him?
Mark Webber: No. I think the undercut was fine here. To put the fresh tyres on, even though the option tyre was not too bad… if you stay out too much longer I think you can be exposed and lose time. Ultimately it’s better to pit pretty soon, to be there and then stay as close as you can to your rivals because the prime tyre was better when it’s fresher.
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