Mark Webber says Red Bull can still be “very proud” of its season after he clinched its fifth victory of the year at Interlagos, even though it wasn’t enough to deny Brawn GP either world championship this weekend.
The Australian shadowed early race leader Rubens Barrichello through the first stint then used his heavier fuel load to comfortably jump the Brawn driver through the pit stops, before going on to control the race thereafter and claim his second career victory.
And although rival Brawn scored enough points to clinch both championships with a round to spare, Webber says RBR – which had never won a race in its previous four-year existence – still has plenty of reasons to be very pleased with its performance this year.
“Fantastic day for the team to win again,” he said after scoring his first ever points at Interlagos.
“We have had quite a few victories this year off the back of some tough seasons at Red Bull, totally confirming second in the constructors’ for us.
“Obviously we weren’t good enough over the whole season to win any championships but we have done ourselves very proud as a unit.”
Knowing that pole-sitter Barrichello and early third-placed man Robert Kubica would make their first stop several laps earlier than him, Webber says he was content to wait for a clear track before pumping in the hot laps ahead of his own service which allowed him to re-emerge with a big lead.
He admits he was slightly concerned at one stage when Kubica started closing in on him, but once it became clear the Pole was running a shorter stint Webber says he knew he had the race under control.
“I knew Rubens was a bit shorter, I knew Robert was a bit shorter – I was impressed with Robert’s pace to start with,” Webber said.
“When they pitted I had a nice clear run to get a good gap to start the second stint and I just cleared JB [Jenson Button] on the out lap which is always nice as well.
“Also just making sure the tyres were nice and comfortable for the whole stint, doing enough.
“A little bit panicky with Robert in the second stint because he started closing and I thought my pace is not too bad, but the guys said he was on quite a short middle stint so that sort of confirmed that for me.
“Then starting the last stint it was nice to have a bit of a buffer, so I controlled that to start with – obviously the tyres are very good straight away but you can’t go bananas on them – and just controlled the gap to Robert to about five-odd seconds.
"Then it looked like he knew it was going to be a stalemate and backed off towards the end, so that gave me a nice run home.”
The Australian also said he felt his first-lap defence of position from Kimi Raikkonen’s KERS-equipped Ferrari on the backstraight was fair, after the Finn broke his front wing on the back of the Red Bull.
“It is always the same with the KERS cars, the speed difference is absolutely enormous,” Webber said.
“I came out of [turn] three to start with, then I saw Kimi massively late and I mean he had a massive speed advantage and I was firm.
“Kimi would have done the same to me so it was what needed to be done.”
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