Webber wins season finale in Brazil as Vettel faces gear box problems
Australian Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) won the season finale' Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos and broke his victory duck for 2011 as team mate Vettel had to contend with a gear shift failure causing to loose the lead on lap 30.
At the lights Vettel started well from pole to lead the race from Webber, Button, Alonso and Hamilton. Vettel flew away with the lead in the early part of the race from the rest of the pack until disaster struck on Lap 17, when he reported a problem with short shifting on gears 2 and 3 after which he had to survive the rest of the race but managed well to finish 2nd.
McLaren's Jenson Button overcame Ferrari's Fernando Alonso to finish 3rd after managing to overtake on Lap 62 in a spectacular fashion.
Fillipe Massa came in 5th while Lewis Hamilton had to retire with gearbox failure on Lap 48 while running in 6th. Adrian Sutil of Sahara Force India managed to outperform Nico Rosberg's Mercedes while Paul di Resta (Sahara Force India) finished 8th. Michael Schumacher had a bad race after coming together with Bruno Senna on lap 10 which punctured his rear left. Schumacher pitted for new tyres and had to join at the back of the field and finished 15th. Bruno Senna was later penalized for causing a collision which was avoidable.
Mark Webber said "It feels very good, it's always nice to win.The battle with Sebastian wasn't a strong battle in
the end because he had a problem, but even so, my pace was strong and I felt very good in the car. It's a nice way to finish the year. I felt good in the car and getting the fastest laps at the end was very rewarding. Looking back, it wasn't the greatest season for me, but also not the worst. I had a weak start to the year and wasn't able to capitalise on misfortune from others or put myself in a situation to win fair and square, which is what you want, but in motor sport you take the victories when they come. So, it was a very important win for me today and for the team to finish on a high is great. I really enjoyed the last few laps. This is a
great track for the team and we have gained three wins in a row here"
Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 71 | 1:32:17.464 |
2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 71 | +16.9 secs |
3 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 71 | +27.6 secs |
4 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 71 | +35.0 secs |
5 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 71 | +66.7 secs |
6 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 70 | +1 Lap |
7 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 70 | +1 Lap |
8 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 70 | +1 Lap |
9 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 70 | +1 Lap |
10 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 70 | +1 Lap |
11 | 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 70 | +1 Lap |
12 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 70 | +1 Lap |
13 | 17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 70 | +1 Lap |
14 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 70 | +1 Lap |
15 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 70 | +1 Lap |
16 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 69 | +2 Laps |
17 | 9 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 69 | +2 Laps |
18 | 21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 69 | +2 Laps |
19 | 25 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 68 | +3 Laps |
20 | 22 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 68 | +3 Laps |
Ret | 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 61 | Alternator |
Ret | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 46 | Gearbox |
Ret | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 26 | Spin |
Ret | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 21 | Wheel |