Mark Webber: “It’s disappointing to be seventh”

Mark Webber is disappointed after qualifying a meagre 7th for tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix, after a tough end to the qualifying hour for the Red Bull outfit. After dominating the three practice sessions prior to the all-important qualifying session, both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber lacked pace in the top ten shootout.

After seemingly returning to their usual dominant form throughout Friday and Saturday practice, Red Bull’s speed advantage over the rest of the pack seemed to somewhat dissipate throughout qualifying. Lewis Hamilton, who had been close behind Vettel throughout the majority of practice in the early stages of the weekend, picked up the pieces from Red Bull’s lack of pace and stormed to another McLaren pole position.

Neither Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber managed to even qualify on the front row alongside the Briton, as the Williams of Pastor Maldonado silenced many of his critics with yet another superlative qualifying effort which will see him start tomorrow’s race from 2nd on the grid. Instead, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were forced to settle with 3rd and 7th on the grid respectively, contrary to many who predicted a Red Bull resurgence at Singapore.

“We expected to be higher than that. It was a tricky session and on every run the car felt a bit different.” Explained a frustrated Mark Webber after qualifying, “We didn’t have the rear-grip that we had in the other sessions; normally the super soft tyres give us a certain balance, but it was difficult to chase it in that session. It’s disappointing to be seventh, but it’s a long race tomorrow and we have a chance to get something from it.”

Mark Webber has endured a frustrating run of qualifying results since the British Grand Prix, a race which the Australian driver won back in July. Since then, Webber has failed to qualify higher than 7th, and finish a race higher than 8th. The 36-year-old will be striving for a better race result in tomorrow’s 61-lap race, which will be his 190th Grand Prix start.

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