MOTORSPORT: Surprise, surprise ... Webber conspiracy theories

Webber has said he was “surprised” to be switched to a three-stop strategy as he chased what would have been his first victory of the year against flying Lotus-Renault driver Romain Grosjean and Vettel.

In the post-race interviews and in a team statement he seemed quite accepting of what had happened, but a separate statement from the Webber camp hinted that there was more to it (more on all of that below).

However, RBR team principal Christian Horner has claimed that three stops became the only option for Webber.

Horner said that – with the RBR drivers starting on the front of the grid and Webber on pole position for the first time this year – the Australian veteran and his younger multiple world champion German teammate had been told before the start that they were free to race, obviously on the proviso that they didn’t crash into each other.

Things were complicated by Grosjean’s storming start from the second row to lead them both.

“Mark was going through the tyres a bit quicker … it made a huge amount of pressure on the two-stop and would have been very difficult to beat Grosjean, so we switched from two to three,” Horner said.

“Unfortunately we [Webber’s car] lost too much time at the end there behind Grosjean for him to have a crack at Sebastian. He [Vettel] just made the tyres last extremely well.”

Vettel has gone further ahead – 90 points now – in his charge towards a fourth straight world title, although Fernando Alonso’s fourth place for Ferrari extended the mathematical fight another two weeks until the Indian GP.

Webber was on the podium for the fifth time in the 15 races so far this season – three second places and two thirds – and Grosjean, who a year ago Webber branded “the first-lap nutcase” over the many incidents he caused – won a lot more admirers, only losing second place to Webber on the penultimate lap.

Webber commended the Frenchman for “doing a very good job” and taking “a big step” this season.

Young Aussie Daniel Ricciardo missed out on a top 10 finish, finishing a lap down after a drive-through penalty for getting on the grass while overtaking. Having started only 16th but been as high as fourth in the race, Ricciardo was not happy about the penalty, saying it “ruined my race”.

He has now gone three GPs without world championship points.

While the once-mighty McLaren and Williams teams remain in the doldrums, Swiss team Sauber’s resurgence of late continued with its drivers in the points – Nico Hulkenberg sixth, behind the Lotus-Renault of Kimi Raikkonen, and Mexican rookie Esteban Gutirrez seventh (his first finish in the top 10).

Meanwhile, in America reigning NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski has notched his first Sprint Cup race win of the year driving a Ford for Roger Penske after taking the title last year in a Dodge – a marque that then quit the sport.     

The fight for this year’s crown is primarily between Toyota driver Matt Kenseth and Chevrolet’s five-time champion Jimmie Johnson with five races to go.

Australian Marcos Ambrose was 17th and a lap down in the weekend’s round at Charlotte and moved up a place to 19th in the championship.

A late caution because of debris on the track wiped out Johnson’s huge lead in the race and Keselowski motored to his 10th Cup race victory after leading only 11 of the 334 laps, including the last seven.

For starters, here’s what Webber is quoted saying in the team’s post-race press release: “We were on the back foot a bit after Romain’s great start. I wanted to put pressure on him for the win. Sebastian was on a different strategy to me and in the end it worked out pretty similar. It’s hard to know which was right (a two or three-stop strategy), as we were trying to cover off Romain. I did my best and in the end it was a good result.”

Now here’s what Webber told commentator and former team owner Eddie Jordan in an interview on the podium: “Obviously I would have liked one more step on the podium, but there were different strategies going on. Seb went longer in the first stint and then it unloaded his race a bit better than mine at the end. So, in general, pretty happy with second but, yeah, hey, you always want a bit more, but we got the best out of what I could today. Both of us had very poor starts, which put us on the back foot a little bit and then after that it was just really trying to pace the car again on the tyres and making sure they survived to do the sort of strategy we wanted to. In the end we went to three-stop, which put us a little bit on the back foot, but still we got back to where we were.”

And here’s what Webber said in the post-race press conference (not seen on TV), when asked whether he had hoped to challenge Vettel in the closing laps:

“Ah, no. I don't think the battle was going to be with Sebastian at the end. I think that it was pretty much done when we didn't do enough damage on the three-stop against Seb's pace on the two. I think we tried to race Romain at the start and then in the end we switched to the three. So I was the meat in the sandwich, trying to beat Romain on a two and then all of a sudden we decided to do a three. I was a little bit surprised. I asked was it the right thing to do, because I felt we could get to the lap we were looking to get to. Of course Seb was two or three laps longer, four laps maybe, but in terms of the target lap that we looked to get for the two-stop I thought was achievable- but in the end Seb did a good race, the strategy worked out perfect and, yeah, the three was ... not absolutely ridiculous but it's a bit more high-risk, we know, and you have to clear people obviously. So yeah, piggy in the middle, trying to do both. In the end, we got back to where we were in terms of position, but Seb jumped both of us. But a great result for the team, a sensational result for me in my last time in Japan in F1. I enjoyed the GP today, it was nice to have fresh tyres a bit more, which is always enjoyable around Suzuka. So that was today's race.”

And now what a release issued directly on Webber’s behalf said: Despite a brilliant pole position on Saturday afternoon, Mark Webber wasn’t quite able to take his first F1 victory at Suzuka. He and fellow front-row starter Sebastian Vettel were beaten away from the grid by Romain Grosjean and Webber’s chances were further hampered by a change of strategy midway through the race.

“My race was made more complicated by Grosjean getting the jump on us at the start,” Webber said. “He left the grid like a dragster, whereas we bogged down, and there wasn’t much Seb or I could do about it. I then found myself having to try and beat both guys – Grosjean and Sebastian.”

Tyre conservation proved critical once again for all of the drivers and Webber made his first pitstop on lap 11, at which he swapped from the medium-compound rubber that he’d used in qualifying to a fresh set of hard tyres. He rejoined the race in sixth place, but fought his way back on to Grosjean’s gearbox very quickly.

“Even after my first pitstop I thought I was on two-stop strategy,” Webber said. “That was the plan before the race and the team then called me up to say I should switch to a three-stopper. That would give me fresher tyres at the end of the race, but it would also mean I would have to overtake – and that’s never easy at Suzuka because it’s so narrow. But the team told me to ‘go for it’, and that’s what I did.”

Webber fitted another set of hard-compound tyres at his second stop, before opting for a used set of option tyres for his final stint. He started that final segment of the race in third place, 2.5 seconds behind second-placed Grosjean. Webber rapidly closed the gap to the Lotus driver, but he took nine laps to pass him – by which time it was too late to do anything about race leader Vettel.

“In the end I needed 2.5 pitstops today,” Webber said. “Two stops weren’t quite enough and three stops were too many. I’m slightly kicking myself that I didn’t go longer during the second stint, but that’s history now. I had a good fight with Grosjean at the end and it was good to take second place from him. It was a good GP and a good result for the team. It was a bit frustrating to be managing tyre wear this afternoon. Around a track like this you want to drive flat-out all of the time.”

“Well, you know, you struggle more in the end obviously. I tried to control the gaps. Obviously we started already to go longer than Romain and Mark in the first stint, so we took into account that we lap a second a lap slower for two or three laps compared to them, in order to get the range in the next stint, and then tried to extend that to really put them under pressure towards the end. That was, let's say, the game plan. Obviously after the first pit stop, I think very soon in the second stint, Mark decided to go for the three-stop, which wasn't far off. Before the race I think we targeted more towards two stops, but the tyres weren't holding up as well as probably we thought. As I said, I really tried to manage the gaps in the beginning of the stint and then close the gap, which worked brilliantly, especially with Romain. The end of the second stint I was just on his tail when he pitted, able to stay out another couple of laps and then I had more or less fresh tyres when I was able to pass him, so, yeah, great strategy. It obviously worked. We made it ... we didn't lose the patience early on. Tried obviously to make the stints as long as possible to help us at the end of the race.”

Horner was quoted by Britain’s Autosport saying: “The key aspect was the first stint. We went in to the race thinking it was going to be marginal for a two-stop, but probably in clear air we could do that. The first stint dictated everything for us though. Mark put Grosjean under quite a lot of pressure and went through the tyre phases pretty quickly, to the point that he had run out of tyres by the lap he pitted on.

“That was too short for us in our own minds to make a two-stop really work, because you would have effectively run out of tyres in that last stint. So, as the race opened up for Mark, and Daniel Ricciardo held the rest of the field back, some clear track space opened up. While Grosjean pitted to cover Mark, Sebastian was able to get in clear air to run at a very quick pace, having conserved his tyres. That happened again during the second stint and, as the gap opened up, for Mark effectively it was a free stop. We felt that was the best way to attack and pass Grosjean with Mark and do the opposite with Sebastian.”

Horner said that Webber and Vettel had been told pre-race that they were free to battle each other, and that if Grosjean had delayed Vettel after his second stop Webber would have been on the better strategy.

“We discussed it before the race that the drivers were free to race each other, and at one point it looked like Mark – if Grosjean had held Seb up – would be on the better tyre at that point and have the better chance of winning," Horner said. “But Seb made the move early and quickly, and building a bit of a lead was critical for his race.”

The verdict? No conclusive evidence Webber was wronged.

So what does it all amount to? Progressively throughout Webber’s comments there seems to be a questioning of the wisdom of him being switched to the three-stop strategy, but the bottom line is that a pole position was squandered by another poor start, his first stop was early, meaning it would have been difficult to run the rest of the race – and win – with just one stop, and he has a history of not using his tyres as well as Vettel. Sorry, conspiracy theorists, Vettel just played it better – even if this wasn’t one of his greatest drives.

Ricciardo swears he could have been in top 10
And what of Daniel Ricciardo’s Japanese GP?

The West Australian drove a long opening stint in his Toro Rosso-Ferrari on the hard-compound tyres and at one point was fourth after many others had stopped for a change of rubber.

Once on fresher tyres Ricciardo went to overtake around the outside of Adrian Sutil’s Force India-Mercedes at the 300kmh 130R turn but ran wide over the run-off area in making the move before returning to the track ahead of the German.

The race stewards said Ricciardo had completed the pass while going off the track and imposed a drive-through penalty, which pushed him back to 13th at the finish – one place behind Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.

“I am disappointed not to have scored some points today, because I am convinced I was heading for the top 10, which would have been an encouraging result, after struggling with the balance of the car on Saturday,” Ricciardo said.

“I made a good start and moved up two places. It was looking good as I passed Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Renault) and moved up the order as those on the medium tyre pitted ahead of me. I was moving up the order again after my first stop and then I made a move on the outside of Adrian Sutil at the 130R and got past him.

"But after that I ran wide on to the grass, which lost me a bit of time. Sadly, the stewards decided I had gained an advantage by going off the track and had to take a drive-through penalty, which of course ruined my race.

"I was ninth when I came in for the penalty and it dropped me down outside the points."

F1 constructor standings - 1. Red Bull-Renault 445 points; 2. Ferrari 297; 3. Mercedes 287; 4. Lotus-Renault 264; 5. McLaren-Mercedes 83; 6. Force India-Mercedes 62; 7. Sauber-Ferrari 45; 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 31; 9. Williams-Renault 1.

NASCAR Sprint Cup points after 31 of 36 races - 1. Matt Kenseth (Toyota) 2225 points; 2. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2221; 3. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2196; 4. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2189; 5. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 2185; 6. Greg Biffle (Ford) 2167; 7. Kurt Busch (Chevrolet) 2166; 8. Clint Bowyer (Toyota) 2162; 9. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2159; 10. Carl Edwards (Ford) 2158; 11. Joey Logano (Ford) 2150; 12. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 2147; 13. Kasey Kahne (Chevrolet) 2144.