Mark Webber is hoping that his full-to-the-brim RB5 car will give him the legs to battle it out for major points in Italian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing driver ended up in 10th in a qualifying session dominated by Lewis Hamilton, and in which title rivals Rubens Barrichello and Jenson annexed row three of the Monza grid.
“We have quite a long strategy in the first stint, and I just hope it’s long enough to give us a chance to have a good race,” said Webber afterwards. “If we’re not quick enough to recover from there, then, as always, you’ll get what you deserve. And that’s what happened today. Sebastian [Vettel] and I probably got the maximum we could from the car today. That’s where it is.”
But with Ross Brawn admitting both his drivers will be one-stopping, it looks set to be a tricky afternoon for Webber, though the Australian insisted the one-stop option was the only way to attack the race when surrounded on Monza’s long straights by KERS-equipped cars.
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“When you’re not quite fast enough and you’re on a two-stop, and the KERS cars pass you, then you can spend the whole race behind them,” he said. “If Brawn are one-stopping, too, then they’re in very good shape, because it’s going to be very hard to outrun them. But we need to see the fuel loads first to see where we are. We could be fantastically quick. But we know from Q2 and Q3 that we still have a little bit of pace to find.
“If we are longer [than the Brawns], then it will be massively beneficial,” he added. “But from what we saw in Q2, Rubens did a 1m 22.9s, so I don’t think they are massively shorter than us. I think they’re similar weights. This weekend, they’re just faster.”
And if the Brawns are similarly-fuelled, Webber admitted that circumstance could be the only hope. “I think it’s going to be a case of something happening in the race and that’s how we beat them. It’s not going to be a case that we totally outdrive them. It’s going to be a case of circumstances – maybe it’s a difficult first lap, maybe it’s rain. It’s always an interesting race in Monza.”
But while team-mate Vettel admitted he would like a replica of the conditions that led to a rain-soaked maiden win here while at Toro Rosso last year, Webber was more circumspect. “It’s not nice to start in the middle of the pack in the rain, I generally like to see where I’m going,” he laughed. “We’ll see. Maybe a smash-up derby would be a good thing for us, as long as you can keep out of trouble yourself. This can be a dangerous track in the wet. If you’re at the front, it’s good – if you’re not, then…
“Honestly, tomorrow I think a podium is out of the question,” he concluded. “But we just have to score the maximum amount of points that we can get, and if we beat the Brawns, then that will be a major bonus.”
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