Mark Webber retired due to severe tyre wear

Mark Webber joined team-mate Sebastian Vettel in retirement throughout the closing stages of the Italian Grand Prix, bringing to an end a difficult race weekend for both himself and the Red Bull outfit. This was the team’s first double DNF since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, such is Red Bull’s fantastically consistent track record.

After starting the Italian Grand Prix from 11th on the grid, Mark Webber struggled to find the pace to challenge the leaders throughout the opening stages of the race. Whereas team-mate Sebastian Vettel was able to battle with the likes of Fernando Alonso throughout the race, Webber struggled to cling on in the points. After Nico Rosberg completed his second pit stop, the German began reeling in the Australian driver. This forced Webber to continue pushing to remain in the points, and subsequently led to the Red Bull driver spinning on the exit of turn 10 as he pushed to the limit on worn tyres.

“Towards the end of the race, I had no rear tyres left and I was pushing reasonably hard.” Explained Mark Webber, who recorded his first DNF of the season at Monza. “Nico was coming on his fresh two-stop tyres, so I had to keep pushing and staying on it – for the sake of getting a couple of points, maybe I shouldn’t have pushed as hard, but I was trying to stay on it. The rear tyres were completely finished, so I dropped it out of the Ascari chicane [turn 10]; I managed to keep it off the wall, but then the tyres were so heavily flat-spotted, I was worried about damaging the car. We do 330 km/h round here, I couldn’t see the track, so we decided to retire.”

Today’s result was Mark Webber’s first DNF since last year’s Italian Grand Prix, when the Australian driver collided with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa on lap four. With the Australian driver now 5th in the Drivers’ Championship with 132 points scored, Webber will need several highly competitive results if he wishes to remain a Championship contender in 2012.

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