HOWZAT!!! - Webber Takes Inspiration from Aussie Cricketers
By Ian Lockwood
July 11 2009
HOWZAT!!! Australia’s green and gold sporting colours fly high as Mark Webber draws inspiration from his fellow Aussie cricketers to claim his first-ever pole at the Nurburgring.
They say Mark Webber isn’t the stereotypical Formula One driver and so it’s fairly unlikely that any other driver would have spent their preparation for today’s qualifying for the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in quite the same manner the Australian did!
Instead of visualizing that perfect pole lap, Webber could be found glued to the TV in his room, drawing inspiration from his beloved Australian cricket team as they headed towards the end of an impressive first innings in the first Ashes test at Cardiff! It certainly did the trick as Webber promptly went out and carved up the field in the tricky and damp conditions to take a superb maiden pole position for tomorrow’s 60 lap German Grand Prix. In fact, it was a day to savour for Queanbeyan, NSW natives, with Webber taking his first pole and cricketer Brad Haddin (who Webber was at school with!) scoring a century in his first Ashes test!
Webber has been looking particularly sharp all weekend, setting the early pace by a healthy 4/10ths in yesterday’s opening practice session with a best time of 1min 33.082s. He ended the second session in fourth position with a 1min 32.480s but had set a series of “purple” fastest laps following a rain shower at the start of the session, once again showing his prowess in damp conditions.
Today’s final practice saw the two Red Bulls headed by Sebastian Vettel wind up fourth and fifth behind the unlikely trio (based on this year’s form anyway!) Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, prompting speculation of whether this was the start of a revival or was there a bit of gamesmanship going on!
Rain had been predicted for the start of the qualifying but as it turned out, it didn’t arrive properly until the start of Q2. After an early scare in the opening session when he was only 13thfastest after his first run, Webber bolted on a set of the softer tyres and set what proved to be the fastest time of the session, 1min 31.257s
The cars all headed out on dry weather tyres at the start of Q2 but the arrival of rain sent the entire field bar Webber scurrying back to the pits after completing their first lap. Webber pitted a lap later and once on intermediate tyres he set the pace in the tricky conditions with a time of 1min 38.038s.The rain didn’t last for long and Rubens Barrichello was the first out on slicks and quickly eclipsed Webber’s time by a whopping three and a half seconds to head the times. Nelson Piquet and Adrian Sutil took advantage of the drying conditions to move up the order into second and third while Webber dropped to fourth. With the rain falling again towards the end of the session, there was no further room for improvement so Webber ended Q2 in fourth position.
Mark’s first run in Q3 put him third fastest with a time of 1min 33.238 but in the closing minutes he ventured out for his final run. Despite being the first of the title protagonists to take the chequered flag, he was able to make his flying lap stick, a time of 1min 32.320 with two fastest purple sectors. The Webber side of the garage held its breath as they waited for Vettel and the two Brawns of Jenson Button and Barrichello to complete their final laps but none of them were able to beat Webber’s time. Although Vettel went second fastest, he was demoted to fourth by Barrichelo and Button.
Said a delighted Webber afterwards, “It’s a very special day for me to get pole. I’ve been close before and on pole fuel-corrected but that doesn’t count. We are here! The team has done a great job all weekend but all the teams and all the drivers were very tested in that qualifying session. I think the car is working very well here but talking to my engineer it was very hard to make the right calls. We learned a little bit in Q2 with Rubens doing that lap – it was a very good one. It was chaotic to read what we needed at the end.
“Obviously you call on experience on a day like this; you have a great team of people around you – they’re on the pit wall making the right calls. It was difficult knowing what the track was going to do, how greasy it was and what tyre to use. It was a very difficult session but one our team did well and that’s why we got pole.
“I hope I can win my first race tomorrow. I am in a fantastic position to do it, these guys (Brawn) have had a strong season but we are looking forward to the fight. I’m up for trying to win my first race tomorrow. I think a nice boring GP for me would be fantastic but I think that’s unlikely given the forecast. We are ready for all conditions, we know we can compete. It’s a great situation to be in – to fight for podiums – and obviously to win at this level you need everything to go right for you. I’ve been close and had a few seconds – the day might come to step up and it may be tomorrow.”