Month: July 2009

Media outlets across Australia have been reporting on Mark Webber’s maiden Grand Prix win all morning. The in car audio from Mark after the race, which captured his raw emotion, is still being played, “Yes, yes, yeehah. You f@#king beauty!”

His celebrations were typically Australian, he wore his heart on his sleeve and just as in the race, he left nothing behind. Speaking on ABC radio overnight, Will Hagon described Webber’s release of emotion as being the culmination of not one race, or one result, but his entire motorsport career.

As a young boy starting his racing career at the Fairbairn Park karting track in Canberra, Webber would have been dreaming of this day. Now he has reached the summit. Mark Webber, from the small New South Wales city of Queanbeyan, is a Grand Prix winner!

Even better than that, his Red Bull Racing team are providing he and Sebastian Vettel with a potential championship winning car. They have clearly been the form team of the last few races and last night’s results saw both Vettel and Webber close the gap to championship leader Jenson Button.

Button heads the championship table with 68 points, Vettel is second on 47 points. Webber’s win sees him leap frog Rubens Barichello into third place in the driver’s championship on 45.5 points, with the Brazilian in fourth on 44 points. Felipe Massa is fifth in the driver standings, back on just 22 points.

After Brawn GP’s early season jump start on the competition, Red Bull Racing are also narrowing the gap in the constructor’s title which now stands, Brawn GP 112 points, Red Bull Racing 92.5 points and Toyota, third, on 34.5 points.

Mark Webber is just the third Australian driver to win a Formula One race, following in the footsteps of Alan Jones and Sir Jack Brabham. Amazingly, Webber’s maiden victory came in his 130th race start—Alan Jones had 116 race starts in his entire career, Brabham had 126. Let’s hope Webber can continue the legacy of Australians who have won a Grand Prix race have also gone on to win a World Championship.

Full driver quotes from the post-race press conference are available from Formula1.com. Red Bull Racing’s media release, along with a vast gallery of images from the race are available after the jump.

Mark Webber has driven a magnificent race to claim his first ever Grand Prix victory. It was the first win by an Australian driver since Alan Jones won the 1981 US Grand Prix.

Webber started aggressively from pole position at the Nürburgring track, but couldn’t hold off a fast charging Rubens Barichello who led into the first corner. Lewis Hamilton, too, made a great start and headed Webber into the first corner but the Briton then ran wide and suffered a puncture, effectively ending his race.

The Australian was handed a drive through penalty for initiating contact with Barichello in the lead up to the first corner. Opinions in race commentary were divided as to whether the penalty was justified. Fortunately, it mattered not, as Webber’s outright pace and two stop strategy was superior to the Brawn GP three stop plan.

Webber has often had promising results ruined by bad luck. Today, though, the F1 gods were shining on the Aussie. After Barichello’s first pit stop he got caught behind Felipe Massa. The precious seconds lost by Rubens here allowed Webber to close the time surrendered to the Brawn machine following his drive through penalty.

Once that hurdle was overcome Webber looked in the best position to win the race. His grip on the race win tightened further when Barichello had a re-fuelling mishap at his second stop which cost valuable seconds.

Red Bull Racing got Webber back out quickly, and safely, after his second stop and from that point on the Australian enjoyed a clear run to the line, winning the 2009 German Grand Prix.

Webber’s Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastien Vettel finished the race in second, ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

UPDATE 13 July: Check out AUSmotive’s image gallery of Mark’s win HERE.