With his championship charge ended by brake failure in Singapore last weekend, Mark Webber's end-of-season run-in went from bad worse after he was forced to sit out qualifying in Suzuka today (October 3) after an accident in practice damaged his car so badly that he required a chassis change.
Webber was on his fastest lap of the one-hour practice session when he buried the front end of his RB5 into the barriers at Turn 9 with seven minutes remaining. He walked away unhurt, but the car was too badly damaged to be repaired in time for the afternoon’s qualifying session so the Australian will now have to start the 53-lap race from the pitlane.
“You think of the preparation that goes into a weekend like this, so to not have the opportunity to do the race from a decent grid position is very tough for all of us - especially the guys in the garage,” said Webber. “It wasn't a big crash by any means, but it did too much damage to the chassis, so we have to change it.
“We don’t have spare cars these days, so that’s the outcome and it’s a shame,” he concluded. “We made a few changes to the car for the final run and I lost control when it bottomed out through Turn Eight.”
Webber’s crash is a major dent to his team’s hopes of winning the constructors’ championship. To prevent Brawn GP from taking the manufacturers’ crown Red Bull’s drivers need to score seven points more than the title leaders, and while Sebastian Vettel will line up on pole tomorrow having Webber start dead last makes the task more difficult.
Team principal Christian Horner confirmed that that the new chassis would have to be checked over by race scrutineers on Sunday morning and that Webber would be starting from the pitlane. “It was a really unfortunate incident, which is quite costly,” he said. “Not a good start to the weekend.”
Add a comment
Comments