Strategy blunder leaves Webber 18th

Mark Webber on Saturday rued a strategy mistake that leaves him stranded 18th on the Chinese grand prix grid.

While his Red Bull teammate secured a third consecutive 2011 pole, Australian Webber went out at the first hurdle in Q1, with KERS problems already slowing him down.

He failed to make the cut in Q1 after electing not to use the significantly faster soft tyre compound.

"We thought we had enough speed even without them," Webber told German broadcaster RTL, "but the problem was I couldn’t get them to temperature."

Asked whether he would have been faster with softs, he answered: "Of course. The decision was made on the pitwall and usually they get it right".

Team boss Christian Horner confirmed that it was the pitwall’s decision to try to get through Q1 with Webber on the hard tyre only.

"It’s very easy with hindsight to say we should have gone on the option (softs)," he told the BBC. "It was the team’s call. He’s just had rotten luck this weekend."