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Mark Webber may be leading the Formula One world championship, but the Australian said Thursday he did not see himself as the outright favourite for the title ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Webber, who has an 11-point advantage over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with four races remaining, remains calm despite being in the driver’s seat for the title, which has not been won by an Australian since Alan Jones clinched the championship for Williams in 1980.
“It’s on a knife-edge, but I’m very relaxed, and this is just another race for me,” Webber said.
“I’ll do my best, give nothing (to my rivals), and leave no change on the table. The points will look after themselves.”
Webber heads a quintet of drivers - Alonso, his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, and McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button - separated by just 25 points, the equivalent of a race win. Sydney Morning Herald
Consecutive non-finishes mean the McLaren driver has dropped to third in the drivers’ championship standings with 182 points — 20 behind leader Mark Webber of Red Bull with four races left.
“I’m looking at all the races, taking a step back and trying to see how I can improve,” Hamilton said Thursday. “You could just drive around and not pass anyone but that’s not me and that’s not going to happen.”
Despite the recent setbacks, Hamilton said he wasn’t giving up on the championship race.
“There are still four races to go,” Hamilton said. “Looking back at this season and knowing how fast things can change, I still feel optimistic so I’m going to work as hard as I can to finish races.”
Hamilton was knocked out of the Singapore Grand Prix after a mid-race collision with Webber, seriously damaging his chances for the championship.
“You have to race sensibly and avoid incidents,” Hamilton said. “But when you are racing wheel-to-wheel, incidents happen. I don’t think what happened in Singapore was anything unusual. That’s just racing.” The Associated Press
Pos Driver Team Points 1 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 202 2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 191 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 182 4 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 181 5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 177 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 128 7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 122 8 Robert Kubica Renault 114 9 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 47 10 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 46 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 39 12 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 21 13 Vitaly Petrov Renault 19 14 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 17 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 13 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 26 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber-Ferrari 0
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