European Grand Prix : Mark Webber lucky to escape after Accident With Kovalainen
Red Bull driver Mark Webber was involved in an ugly accident at the Valencia GP, which ended his race. However, looking at the extent of damage done to the car, not being able to continue the race, and landing at the 24th place, would have been least of Webber’s worries.
Mark Webber later admitted that he was lucky to escape without being hurt, in an accident which occurred with his car at a speed of 200mph.
His car somersaulted after hitting the rear of Heikki Kovalainen’s car and landed upside down before smashing into the tire fences.
Webber said, "I'm happy. I was just having a shower and thinking, 'Mate, you're lucky to be in one piece.'
"It was a nasty incident. I was surprised by what happened. I'm a little bit tender here and there but the car did a great job."
Webber, at the time of the accident, was trying to make his way back at the top of the order. After starting the race in 2nd spot, he had slipped down to 9th after running into some traffic at the start that also resulted in an early pit stop for him for a change of tyres.
Webber, after coming out of the pits, was behind Kovalainen; Kovalainen was driving his Lotus car that is one of the 3 new teams in F1 this year, all of which were at least 4 seconds adrift from Sebastian Vettel, who was leading the race.
Webber said he did not expect Kovalainen to slow down to that degree when they came close in at the 12th lap.
Webber said that he thought Heikki would let him pass, but all of a sudden he started to close him out by making slight movements right and left.
Webber said he started to wonder as to what Heikki was doing. Kovalainen decided to hit the brakes 80 meters before he did in the last lap. The new teams certainly do not have the same approach to the races as the big 4 at least.
Webber continued explaining the incident and said that the Lotus driver went across to left and suddenly moved right and continued to do these subtle movements, and still both were some distance away from the actual breaking point.
Webber went on to say that Kovalainen was blocking quite aggressively, but the thing that really threw him off was his early brakes.
Webber said he still had everything under control till then, and that Heikki may have planned his brakes but he did catch him off guard.
Webber felt that Kovalainen's efforts to defend his place on the track were quite pointless, as Webber certainly had a much faster car.
The Red Bull driver, who was understandably upset by the incident, said that he had been in a slow car in the early part of his career, but never was in the way of a car which was by a good distance quicker than him, and the new teams should learn to do the same.
Kovalainen, in his defence, said he had no intentions of engaging Webber in that manner, but he was very relieved that the Red Bull driver was unhurt. The Lotus driver said that Webber just could not anticipate when he was going to break, and that is what threw him off, but as far as letting him pass by was concerned, Heikki said he had every right to defend his place.
Tags: