Mark Webber will be looking to build on his win in Hungary and stretch his overall lead in the championship as Formula One’s summer break comes to a close with the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Red Bull driver has won two of the last three races to lead McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton by four points in the standings with 161 points. Teammate Sebastian Vettel is third with 151 points, Jenson Button of McLaren is on 147 and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso is next with 141.
Webber has rallied around problems within the team to overhaul Hamilton and Vettel, taking advantage of the championship’s fastest car to show he’s a capable No. 1 for Red Bull.
Red Bull has been the pace setter all season but Webber has been able to turn that into points better than Vettel. The Australian driver expects the car to maintain its season-long edge at one of F1’s most iconic races in the rural Ardennes countryside.
“I expect we can do well there. Whether it’s as well as I did in Budapest is a question for everyone,” Webber said. “But I know our team is ready.” The Canadian Press
While Webber leads the field with four victories this season, Vettel has taken the pole in four straight GPs — and has a season-high seven — but has only managed one victory in that span.
“Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve — it’s all fine but at the end of day all that matters are the points you have on the scoreboard,” Vettel said. “Yes, you can argue we should have scored more points but other teams and drivers did too. We are where we are and (now) every single (point) is more important.”
Button has no doubts about McLaren’s chances Sunday at the high-speed, low-downforce Spa circuit after the team’s worst performance of the season in Budapest.
Ferrari’s impressive record could stand in the way as Kimi Raikkonen’s victory last year made it three straight and five of the last seven.
“We all start from zero. It’s a seven-race championship,” said Alonso, who pegged Red Bull as the team to beat again. “It’s very tough competition but we have the expectation of fighting for the championship to the limit. There’s no reason to be pessimistic.”
While both Red Bull and McLaren drivers are still in the thick of the title race, Alonso can likely expect full backing from his Italian team since teammate Felipe Massa is further out of the championship picture in sixth — 64 points behind Webber.
“It’s a nice position for Fernando to have. If he’s following his teammate he might get some relief,” Webber said. “That’s a nice little feather in his cap that might help him a little bit.” The Associated Press
Pos Driver Team Points 1 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 161 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 157 3 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 151 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 147 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 141 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 97 7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 94 8 Robert Kubica Renault 89 9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 38 10 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 35 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 30 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 17 13 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 17 14 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 12 15 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 10 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 7 17 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 6 18 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 3 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 0 20 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 0 21 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 0 22 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 0 23 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 0 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 0 25 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 0
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