• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

First stop lost Webber podium

Mark Webber's first pit stop took almost ten seconds © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Hamilton wins as Vettel retires in Abu Dhabi
  

• Race:
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Mark Webber said that he lost out on a podium in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix during the first round of pit stops.

Webber was running in fourth place but close behind Jenson Button who had a KERS problem when Button pitted for the first time. With the extra lap in clear air looking like it might help Webber jump the McLaren, he then suffered a slow pit stop of almost 10 seconds, dropping behind both Button and Felipe Massa. Having struggled to pass Button again using the DRS Webber went for a three-stop strategy as opposed to the standard two, but was still unable to make up enough time to take third.

"Obviously on the second stop we put the option on again just to cut the race down something different, obviously it was worth a bit of a punt," Webber told the BBC. "The two DRS's were tricky because the first one was easy to get the move done but the second one you couldn't, so if you passed JB [Button] there then obviously he'd just get you back again. So it was a bit of a gimmick today the DRS, it was difficult to make a move stick and then it was harder to get the move done as I say in turn 11."

"In the end I had pretty good pace on JB anyway. At the end of the first stint he went one lap shorter than us which is no problem there with the strategy but then we had a bad first pit stop. Obviously we lost a lot of time with that first stop and that put us on the back foot, I got the car back on to the back of them but we were just out of track position by then so that's where we lost the podium; the pressure on the podium was probably lost around the first pit stop."

With something visibly hanging off the bottom of Webber's car throughout the race, he admitted a slight mistake could have led to some damage.

"Could well be, on one of my laps following very close I got a little bit wide in turn three so could have a little bit of damage on the front T-tray."

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