Question: Mark, it was a crazy session. But by the end you didn’t just seem to find extra pace but possibly a rudder to sail that Red Bull onto pole.
Mark Webber: It was a very tricky qualifying session for everyone. No question about it. When you look at the amount of standing water in places in Q1 and in Q2, just trying to get everything right, trying to get a clear lap, obviously there is a fair difference in pace between some of the cars. It was a pretty challenging session for everyone. My Q2 lap on the inters was a bit of a three-point turn around Pedro (de la Rosa) which was my quickest lap and you just knew you had to keep pushing as the conditions can change. Very challenging for everyone and some big scalps in the first session as well which was a bit of a surprise but it just goes to show how sensitive it is to timing. The pole is for my engineer. He made the call for the inters. He said, ‘mate, have a look at the track, what do you think, but yeah, let’s go for it, it’s going to be at the end on the third or fourth lap you are going to go for pole. That’s the proper tyre you need to be on.’ Tricky in places, turn two, but also stopping for the last corner there was a bit of aquaplaning. But it was the right tyre and I kept it on the black stuff and got the job done.
Question: Mark, for the third time this season a Red Bull driver starts on pole for the grand prix. How is the race going to pan out for you and are you worried about what’s happened to the Red Bull driver who has been on pole the first two times?
Mark Webber: Well, we know Sundays we haven’t executed the cleanest races so far this year. The guys have worked like hell at Milton Keynes and also at Viry Renault engines and we are doing our utmost to execute those important Sunday afternoons. We have done a lot of great work on Fridays and Saturdays, but we know tomorrow is a big chance for us as a team to do well. Both of us together with some of our main contenders having a tough day today. But look, tomorrow, is a long race. This place can throw up lots of stuff in the two hour duration of the race, so we are not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but we did what we needed to do today.
Question: Mark, surely the session was all about making the right calls at the right time. We have seen that some people didn’t make the right call and became major casualties as it were. Who made the call about your intermediates?
Mark Webber: Collectively Ciaran (Pilbean) and I did. I have got to drive that car and he is having a look at the track conditions and also looking at the window with the weather. It is totally the wrong tyre if it lashes down with rain and totally the right tyre if it holds off for that little bit longer. It had already started to spit but the track in sections it was definitely the right tyre to be on. In other places it was quite high risk to throw both laps away and lose the car. I wasn’t aware I was the only guy on inters. I thought maybe Seb would be and I didn’t know who else would have a crack at them. I didn’t know I was the black sheep of the top ten, but in the end we made the decision together and it was about putting it together. But a tough hour for everyone. I wouldn’t throw egg at anyone, any team, as it is just so easy to get it wrong and it is easy to end up massively on the back foot and then you can’t respond as we saw with both Ferraris and Lewis (Hamilton) trying desperately at the end there when the track was gone. Q2 obviously we needed a canoe as it changes so quickly here and it is just absolutely undriveable in those conditions. You are doing a 40-50km/h but even on the pit entry it was very tricky, so this place when it rains we know it is impressive. Fortunately for everyone today and also the TV we managed to get today’s work done and let’s see what we wake up to tomorrow.
Question: On that last lap, when you went faster again, could you just feel there was a fraction more grip everywhere? How did it develop for you with only three quick laps?
Mark Webber: I knew that I was improving again. I still had my dry lap in my rolling split, so I had a rough idea from the previous sessions - seven seconds down, nine seconds down - from previous corners where I was gaining or losing. I knew I wasn’t something half-decent but in those types of sessions you always have to try and push as hard as you can every lap as it is so changeable. Someone has good visibility and can put together a nice lap. Someone has something different and it doesn’t work for them. In Q2 it was a close shave for me because at the start you needed to do the time and Pedro spun in front of me, so I needed to duck around him and I knew I needed to finish that lap. I lost a lot of time but thankfully got through with that lap. It is very, very easy for anyone to not make it.
Question: It must feel like you won the lottery today?
Mark Webber: Not too bad. For all the guys. Melbourne on Sunday was a tough day. Again we have proven we can bounce back and make decisions as a team in tricky situations and get the job done for both drivers as well. That’s encouraging for us. We are doing everything we can to launch the right footing to go into a positive Sunday afternoons and we are doing the same tomorrow.
Question: As you start from the front of the grid, is it good for you that the two of you - because all the big names are at the back - is it good to be back in the championship race for tomorrow? And secondly, are you worried by Mark’s engine failure yesterday?
Mark Webber: First of all, I think it can be a long race tomorrow. If it was a very, very dry, boring Grand Prix, of course those guys were going to have a bit more of an interesting afternoon, or a more difficult afternoon, to penetrate through the field. But if there’s rain at any stage, it can obviously change. There’s absolutely no question about it: we want to be starting at the front and we’ve done that today, so it’s a nice bonus for us. The engine failure? It (the engine) was very high mileage. You never want any engine failures, of course, but it happened. The guys are pushing incredibly hard. We are doing everything we can within the engine freeze, obviously, to find performance. We know we have a freeze which is quite tough on us, so we’re doing everything we can to close the gap to the guys who have a bit more power. In the end, we had a failure and we hope that we can learn from it and go forward but obviously we can’t change the spec of all the engines now. They’ve been the same since winter testing.
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