Question: Mark, before the race Jenson mentioned that he might have a chance off the line giving your record at the start recently and he did get past you going into the first turn. But from then on some great battles for yourself with Fernando Alonso.
Mark Webber: Yeah, unfortunately I find myself having to come back through too often this season. I can’t make the starts I made last year at the moment. I need to work on those. We will look at them and definitely improve. I have just got to keep working hard as it makes it quite frustrating and it is more risky to come back through and try to regain the positions on the track particularly when the DRS isn’t working. In the end probably lost a position today out of that but JB put a good last stint together so I would have been in a good battle with him if I did have track position. Seb fully deserved the victory but overall if you come here and say you have a podium, though of course you would love a win, and that is what we are all striving for. But this is a very, very challenging venue so it is nice to have the car in one piece and the guys have done a great job all weekend. For me in particular it has not been the easiest track. It is challenging for quite a few of us, but I don’t seem to be super quick around here. In the end I want to thank all my guys. They have done a great job for me all weekend and the team, Renault, again 100 per cent reliability. Great job from them and well done to JB, a good second place for him.
Question: Mark, perhaps you can talk about your battles with Fernando.
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Mark Webber: Yeah, they are enjoyable but I am not keen to sign up for them all the time as it means I am with him when I probably should not be. But, again, difficult start for me trying to get away. We need to continue to work on this. Clearly it makes my race more difficult. I think it ultimately cost me a place today but having said that Jenson put a very good last stint together. That would have been a good battle with us if I’d have had track position with him if we had went away in grid position. But, ultimately, we all got pretty much what we deserved today. It was pretty clear that I had to clear Fernando at some stage in the race as Ferrari kept covering me at the stops. The DRS wasn’t really working so we needed to do it around the stops. Fernando is not in his first grand prix so he knows where to put the car and it was a good battle, but by the time I got past Seb and Jenson were gone. I enjoyed the restart a bit or before on the harder tyre, the prime, and then we went for the softs. Then he had traffic. I think everyone had a little bit of that and the momentum went out of that last set. In the end a third here is not too bad to be honest. I am looking forward to getting on the middle step sooner rather than later but in the end it is still a very challenging venue. The team have done a great job and we got a very good result for the Constructors’ and still some positives to draw on. That’s what we can do.
Question: After that last stop I thought you might have actually gained on Jenson. Admittedly he was flying, but it didn’t happen.
Mark Webber: No I think again we have seen at this end of the compound range for me I am not super quick on them at the back part of stints at the moment. We weren’t too bad on other compounds but still work to do. I can be quickish at time but in the end that’s what we could get today so pretty happy.
Question: Mark, looking ahead to Suzuka, what do you feel your prospects are there?
Mark Webber: Better than here. I enjoy Suzuka, it’s a great track. Korea was pretty good for me until it rained. There are some good venues coming up. All the drivers like driving at Suzuka, so looking forward to going there, mate, it’s a great track, as is India. I’ve had a good look (at it) on the simulator as well. We’ve got some challenging venues coming up and some that I hope I can get my teeth into and continue in this way, but slightly further down the road on Sunday afternoon, pulling everything together and having a slightly better finish to the year if possible. We’re placed to do it, we’ve just got to execute it.
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