F1: Webber Beats Vettel But Still Only Seventh

Formula 1

F1: Webber Beats Vettel But Still Only Seventh

Mark Webber was Red Bull's lone representative in Q3 in Shanghai...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted April 14, 2012 Shanghai (CHN)

Mark Webber outqualified teammate Sebastian Vettel in China Saturday, but the Aussie will still start only seventh as Red Bull struggles to repeat its form of the past two seasons.

The RBR drivers have taken different routes on exhaust arrangements this weekend, with Webber using the latest version and Vettel going back to the earlier spec. The cars are clearly losing out on straightline speed.

“It’s a different championship this year, it’s tight,” said Webber, who qualified four positions better than 11th-place Vettel. “Any bobble ... If I made a mistake on my second lap in Q2, I’m out (of Q3), as well. So it’s very easily done.

“It was the best we could do, but in the end it wasn’t enough. We’re learning a lot, and it’s a tight field. If you’re not getting everything completely together, then you’re exposed.”

Webber conceded that RBR still has a lot of work to do: “We can keep saying we’re gonna get there, but we’ve got to do it. The team is working very, very hard, the guys have done a great job, but we have some pretty quick cars out there. I think today was dominated by tire prep and tire awareness, I suppose.

“We know the Mercedes is very, very hard on its tires, so that might have helped them on one lap today. I’ve been there, like the old Jaguar days, very fast in qualy but hard in the race. Let’s see how it goes. We’re very strong in the Grands Prix, so looking forward to it.

“We’ll see how the tires go. Temperature seems to be playing a big role this weekend on the tires.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.