WEBBER BACK ON PODIUM WITH THIRD PLACE AT BARCELONA

Mark Webber bounced back from a disappointing qualifying to take a well-earned third place in today’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, his best result at the Catalunya track. The 32-year old Australian was the first Red Bull driver across the line, finishing behind the dominant Brawn GP cars of Jenson Button who claimed his fourth win of the season and Rubens Barrichello. His result has moved him into fourth place in the World Drivers’ Championship with 15.5pts, while together with team-mate Sebastian Vettel who finished fourth, the team has strengthened its grip on second place in the Constructors title race although they dropped points to runaway championship leader Brawn GP.

The fate of the race was sealed on the opening lap when Felipe Massa in his KERS-assisted Ferrari made a flying start and relegated front row man Vettel to third, while Barrichello nipped into an early lead ahead of Button. Webber made a good start to maintain fifth.

However, the 66-lap race was brought under the control of the Safety Car on the opening lap after Jarno Trulli triggered off an accident further back in the pack at the second corner which saw the two Toro Rossos of Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Buemi tangle heavily while Adrian Sutil was also sidelined. With debris littering the corner, it took several laps for the marshals to clear the track and it wasn’t until lap five before the race went back to green.

On the restart Webber, suffering from too much wheelspin off the final corner, came under immediate attack from local hero and former world champion, Fernando Alonso, who blasted his way past Webber on the pit straight. However, Webber wasn’t ready to give up his fifth place that easily and pulled off undoubtedly the move of the race (which led to him being credited with the Drive of the Race by David Coulthard on BBC!) when he took to the dirty side of the track and out-braked Alonso into the first corner to reclaim the position.

Webber gradually eased away from Alonso and set his sights on Vettel who, although faster than Massa, was having his race compromised by the Brazilian. Webber closed to within a second of the duelling pair before pitting on lap 19 along with Barrichello. A lap later, Massa and Vettel pitted together.

Webber was brimmed with fuel for a long second stint and came out in ninth position behind Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica and Lewis Hamilton, all yet to stop. However, they were running light and so Webber wasn’t delayed. When they did stop, he regained fifth place.

Barrichello, on a three stop strategy, pitted on lap 31 and when he rejoined the order, he was ahead of Webber by almost six seconds. The Red Bull driver set about reducing the deficit and had closed to within a second as the front runners made their second stop. Barrichello and Webber moved up the order into second and third and when Button pitted from the lead on lap 48, Webber held second briefly before he and Barrichello dived into the pits together on lap 50.

Both Barrichello and Webber rejoined ahead of Massa and Vettel and so maintained their respective second and third places to the chequered flag, Webber less than one second behind Barrichello. There was a late change in the order behind them too, when Massa slowed on lap 62 enabling Vettel to eventually pass the Ferrari for fourth position. Massa eventually finished sixth behind Alonso, having ran out of fuel.

Said Webber afterwards, “It was a tough first stint in terms that we knew in qualifying it was going to be difficult to get track position on those guys, particularly Felipe, around this place as you can’t do much on the circuit. We did our best to hang in there in the first stint. I knew I was one lap shorter which is never ideal but that’s the way it was because of qualifying. The car went incredibly neutral in the high speed in the last few laps of the first stint, so we made a balance correction for the second stint and the stint went very well for me. It was very long; we knew we had to go extremely long to try and jump people and to give us a very good field position, if you like, with the people around us.

“That worked well for the majority of the stint, a good 25 laps or so, and again at the end I came up to Rubens a little bit. I tried to stay close and the guys were encouraging me to stay as close as possible as we thought Rubens might have been one lap shorter but he stopped on the same lap. The primes worked okay at the end - I was stuck behind Rubens again for most of the last stint. But it is a good day for the team. Brawn GP are still going away from us but we are going away from the rest of the field, so it’s been a great day for us. And the team have buried themselves this week to get the car ready, a lot of all nighters, and a big thank-you to Renault as the engines have been great.”