Mark Webber wins his first race, even with a drive through penalty!
Mark Webber was the first to take the checkered flag at the German Grand Prix in Nurburgring, ahead of his German team mate Sebastian Vettel. The Prancing Horse also managed to get on the podium with Felipe Massa’s third place finish. Australian Mark Webber, who started the race from pole, won the 60-lap race, even after serving a drive through penalty, given for ‘dangerous driving’ on Lap 1, involving Rubens Barrichello in his Brawn racer.
The German Grand Prix which was a dry affair through out the entire race, started off with a bang, as both Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello were wheel to wheel towards Turn 1, which the later managed to reach first. Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton who started from fifth had a good start and made it all the way to the front, but that prematurely ended when he braked too late and picked up a bad puncture. The Brit then had to pit for a new set of tires.
Everyone else managed to get a clean start, and Force India’s Adrian Sutil who was seventh fastest in yesterday’s qualifying also performed reasonably well and maintained in eight place. Rubens Barrichello was leading the race, ahead of Webber. Mclaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was third, with Button behind him. Felipe Massa was fifth ahead of Sebastian Vettel and World Champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Most drivers went into the pits for the first round of stops after Lap 11 and Mark Webber served his drive through penalty. After the pits, Webber, who had more fuel than Rubens, took the lead, but at that point he still had to pit to refuel. Many laps later, both the Ferraris pitted, and then Adrian Sutil performed his, and an unfortunate day for him as he damaged his front wing after exiting the pits. The incident involved the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who, a while later retired due to a mechanical problem.
Continue reading for the rest of the report.
Many laps later, Barrichello made his second stop and suffered a fuel rig problem, which cost him four seconds. Mark Webber was very quick through out the race, even faster than his team mate Vettel. Both the Brawns had better races, as clearly towards the end, the German Grand Prix isn’t one of them. At the end, Mark Webber who backed off a little towards the end of race crossed the finish line nine seconds ahead of his team mate. Massa was third (his first podium finish of the season) ahead of Nico Rosberg from Williams.
Championship leader Button was fifth, and his Brazilian team mate finished sixth. The final two points-paying positions were taken up by double World Champion Fernando Alonso in his Renault and Mclaren’s Heikki Kovalainen. Hamilton finished in 18th, ahead of the two retirees; Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastien Bourdais from Toro Rosso.
This is Red Bull’s third 1-2 victory of the season, and its clear that the team is a serious contender for the championship. Points wise, Button still leads the Drivers Championship with 68 points, but just by 20 points from Vettel (47). Webber is right behind of Vettel with 45.5 points. On the constructors standings, Brawn is ahead as well with 112 points. Red Bull is behind with 92.5 followed by Toyota (34.5) and Ferrari (32). Formula 1 now heads to Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix which starts on July 26th.
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Webber’s first ever win… Well done to him…