F1: Win and tonic for Webber, finally

Mark Webber got the victory he desperately needed in Brazil…

MOTORSPORT REPORT

Red Bull Racing vows Vettel gearbox issue real?

Advance Australia Fair rang out over the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, with Mark Webber on the top step of the podium, while most Australians were still asleep this morning. Webber had scored his second Brazilian Grand Prix victory, the seventh win of his 10-year Formula One career, but the first for 15 months.

Dual world champion Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel slowed after 30 of the 71 laps, supposedly with a troublesome gearbox, to let Webber past. Vettel then reeled off a succession of fastest laps but finally gave in to repeated instructions from his pit to ease off to preserve his gearbox and improve his chances of finishing – which he did, almost 17 seconds behind Webber.

McLaren’s Jenson Button was more than another 10 seconds away in third, having overtaken Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso 10 laps from the end.

Alonso finishing fourth elevated Webber to third in the final world championship standings for the second year in a row. Although he’s only had one win this season his 258 points is 16 more than last year, from the same number of races – 19.

The rest of the top four in the championship also scored more points this year – Vettel a mammoth 136 more, Button 56, and Alonso five, despite finishing two places lower.

Webber, in contrast to his unforgettable whooping and yelling after his first GP victory in Germany in mid-2009, was very subdued today.

“Yep, thanks guys,” was all that came over the radio from the cockpit.

Webber, more than anyone, will rank it lowest among his seven wins. But it was, he admitted, “a nice little tonic” after a difficult year in which the 24-year-old teammate with whom he fought to the wire last year has won 11 races and had a season record 15 pole positions (to Webber’s three).

The tough year has yielded a couple of bonuses for the Aussie. He set the fastest lap in seven GPs – four times more than either Vettel or McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, whose gearbox woes in Sao Paulo were worse than the German’s and forced his retirement from today’s race (leaving him on 227 points - 13 points short of last year’s tally and fifth, one place lower in the standings).

As Webber felt a little inner glow in the closing stages today he clocked the fastest lap - twice.

He became a two-time winner at Interlagos – “a nice little track for me, a little classic” – like Brazil’s incomparable Ayrton Senna.

Recently Webber cycled a famous mountainous Tour de France stage with Senna’s great rival, Frenchman Alain Prost. And while his results have not been all he hoped for this year, the Aussie is certainly in the company of greatness. Not only that of the late Senna and Prost, in one sense, but the contemporary champions – Vettel, Button, Alonso and Hamilton.

And, in the two seasons seven-time champion Michael Schumacher has been back in F1, Webber has won five GPs while the man who dominates the record books is yet to return to the podium.

Webber will now take a long holiday at home, learning to surf and contemplating how he can be more competitive against Vettel next year, be in front of the McLaren and Ferrari aces and give the world championship another – probably last – shot.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was insistent that Vettel genuinely had a gearbox issue today.

“Categorically there was an issue… Hand on heart, guarantee you,” Horner said.

He claimed it was astonishing that the world champion finished.

Vettel’s engineer Guillaume Rocquelin had told him over the radio: “Sebastian, we have a serious gearbox problem. You need to do everything you can to save the car. The objective is to stay ahead of Alonso [then third].”

In the post-race interviews Vettel stuck to the line that he had a problem, but there were a few clues it was not as bad as portrayed. He said he was short-shifting and not using second gear, yet he lost barely 0.4 seconds a lap to Webber in the 41 after handing over the lead.

“I tried to stay with Mark as well as I could, in case the problem solved itself and we could go again,” he said.

It would not have been fatigue in the gearbox, as Vettel admitted it was brand new. But even if there were team orders from Red Bull today they are no longer banned. That prohibition was quietly dropped a year in return for the agreement of Ferrari – traditionally the most frequent user of team orders – to the new, smaller, greener turbocharged engines to be introduced in 2013.

Aussies “book-ended” the finishing order at Interlagos, with 22-year-old Daniel Ricciardo 20th for small Spanish team HRT.

Although three laps down, it was the eighth time Ricciardo had made it to the chequered flag in his 11 starts.

“The positive thing for me was that I was able to continue producing good lap times towards the end of the race. It’s been a really good six months and I’m happy with how the season has gone,” Ricciardo said.

Ricciardo now has to wait on word from his ultimate master, Red Bull motorsport supremo Dr Helmut Marko, on what the future holds for him. The best outcome would be a seat at Red Bull-owned Scuderia Toro Rosso next year.

Marko also will be deciding on the future of young French star Jean-Eric Vergne, another groomed by Red Bull and, like Ricciardo, a British Formula Three champion.

One French rookie, Charles Pic, is already confirmed for next year at the Marussia team, which until now has been Virgin Racing. Romain Grosjean, another Frenchman - with a previous taste of F1 and the reigning GP2 champion - is in line for a drive with Renault, or what will be the sole team bearing the Lotus name next season, at least until injured Polish star Robert Kubica’s fitness and future are known.

The other big question mark is the future of 39yo Rubens Barrichello, veteran of 19 seasons and a record 322 GPs.

The Williams team has endured its worst year, scoring just five points – and Barrichello earned four of those. Winner of 11 GPs with Ferrari and Brawn (now Mercedes), Barrichello would love to go on for a 20th season and is even prepared to try to round up financial backing to secure it, either at Williams or an even lesser team.

On the one hand that illustrates a stupid side of F1. On the other how addictive it is.

Formula One drivers’ world championship final standings after 19 races:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 392 points,
2. Jenson Button (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 270,
3. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 258,
4. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 257,
5. Lewis Hamilton (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 227,
6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 118,
7. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 89,
8. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 76,
9. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 42,
10. Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 37,

F1 constructors’ world championship final standings:

1. Red Bull-Renault 650 points,
2. McLaren-Mercedes 497,
3. Ferrari 375,
4. Mercedes 165,
5. Renault 73,
6. Force India-Mercedes 69,
7. Sauber-Ferrari 44,
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 41,
9. Williams-Cosworth 5.

F1: Win and tonic for Webber, finally

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