Mark Webber aims podium finish at 2012 Australian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Red Bull driver Mark Webber still feels positive about the podium finish at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, to be held at Albert Park in Melbourne on Sunday, regardless of an unfortunate performance of the team during the qualifying before the season opener.
The qualifying was led by the McLaren driver, Lewis Hamilton who was followed by his teammate, Jenson Button. The McLaren pair of drivers remained ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus who secured an impressive third position. Grosjean was followed by the legendary
Michael Schumacher who also topped the FP2 on Friday.
Webber faced issue in the KERS unit of the new car RB8 due to which he could not perform well during the qualifying and secured the fifth position for the grid of the first race. The Australian driver was followed by his teammate, Sebastian Vettel.
“I didn't have KERS at the end of the session, which affects your rhythm during qualifying - it's a shame as it's been faultless all winter. I'm pleased with my lap in Q3. We can still get on the podium tomorrow, but we have some fast cars around us, no
question about it,” he said.
Red Bull completely dominated during the 2011 qualifying however, this year everyone had been startled after the performance of the defending champions. Nevertheless, Webber said that the team didn’t bolt from the blue after the qualifying.
“We knew there were some quick guys out there - McLaren and Mercedes especially and Romain [Grosjean] did well too,” he said. “Everyone always thinks we have special bits to keep coming back, but this year it's opened right up.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull team boss said that Webber lost the KERS of his car when he went into Q3 which was the first KERS issue the team had faced over this year’s winter.
In addition, he said that it was quite unfortunate that they faced such a difficulty at a very crucial time. Nonetheless, he said that they did not perform too badly during the qualifying and DRS zones would help them to get the pace in the first race while
he expressed that they were hopeful for the season ahead.
Tags: