Formula One News

Formula One News » Webber victorious in Brazil finale Posted on 27/11/2011

Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber won the Brazilian Grand Prix today, the 19th and final round in the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Webber, who qualified second, moved into the lead on lap 30, when his team-mate, Sebastian Vettel was forced to yield the position due to a gearbox problem. Webber then proceeded to pull out a comfortable gap and finished 16.9 seconds ahead to claim his first win of the year.

“It feels very good; it’s always nice to win. The battle with Sebastian wasn’t a strong battle in the end because he had a problem, but even so, my pace was strong and I felt very good in the car,” Webber said. “It’s a nice way to finish the year. I felt good in the car and getting the fastest laps at the end was very rewarding.”

Vettel meanwhile had to settle for the runners-up spot, forced to short shift from the early stages as he nursed his car to the flag: “I got the message we had a problem, which was a shame as we had a great start to the race,” Vettel said. “After that, it was obvious that that I had to shift early and save the gearbox.

“I hoped it would recover so I kept pushing, but it didn’t happen and then the target was to see the chequered flag.”

Behind, Jenson Button took the final place on the podium. He had lost out to Fernando Alonso on lap 11, but once he switched to the harder of the two tyres, he battled back and eventually got back in front on lap 62, 9 laps from the end.

“I couldn’t really get the soft tyre working around here – we had massive degradation on each set – and that prompted the decision to run two sets of Primes in my final two stints,” explained the McLaren man. “My pace on the Prime was great – and using two sets really meant I could find a good balance and work out where the grip was.

“Earlier in the race, it was disappointing to be passed by Fernando. Out of Turn Five, I saw lots of debris on the circuit, and I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t want to drive over it, and I couldn’t pull to the left because Fernando was there, so I had to back out of it and fall behind. It was a pretty easy move for Fernando to make after that.

“But the Prime was working really well and that helped me chase Fernando down in the final stint and pass him out of Turn Three. Ideally, I wanted to get him into Turn One, because it’s more fun to pass someone without using DRS, but I set him up and got him out of Turn Three after getting a good run along the straight. We gave it everything today – and a podium is a great way to end the year.”

Further back, Felipe Massa trailed Alonso home in fifth, albeit more than 30 seconds further back.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil was next up, having managed to jump the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Paul di Resta completed the top eighth, another runner with gearbox issues, while Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Lotus Renault GP’s Vitaly Petrov were ninth and tenth, to secure the final points.

In total 20 runners were classified at the end, the most notable retiree, Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton went out on lap 48 with a gearbox failure. He had been running sixth at the time, right behind Massa.

“At the start I wanted to avoid any aggro, and that meant I lost a position to Fernando. After that I had reasonably decent pace, and I was able to stay close to Fernando and Jenson until I encountered a gearbox problem,” Hamilton said. “It occurred quite early on – I was having problems with first and second – and it meant I started losing quite a lot of time and Fernando and Jenson were able to pull away from me. The problem meant I stopped being able to make good, clean gearshifts. Then I lost seventh, and then the whole thing just let go.

“Of course, it’s not the way I’d like to have ended the season, but it wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed my race while it lasted. I was challenging Felipe and I was hoping I’d get him, but then the gearbox failure stopped me.

“It’s been a long year, and I want to say a huge thank-you to the team. They’ve never given up, and they’ve worked incredibly hard all season. We didn’t get the ultimate result we wanted, but we had some great times along the way. I’ll be attacking next season; 2012 will be my year.”