• Chinese Grand Prix - Qualifying

Webber excluded for lack of fuel sample

Mark Webber originally qualified 14th after stopping on track © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Chinese Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Mark Webber has been excluded from qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix after not having enough fuel to supply a sample.

After setting his first time in Q2 Webber stopped his car on the inside of the Turn 14 hairpin due to a lack of fuel pressure. He subsequently dropped out in 14th place but after the session the stewards excluded Webber from qualifying for being "unable to provide the fuel sample as required."

"The team admitted it had not put sufficient fuel in the car," the stewards said. "As specified in the technical delegate's report, only 150ml of fuel was on board which was insufficient to provide the 1 litre fuel sample and drive the car back to the pits under its own power."

The aforementioned report from technical delegate Jo Bauer read: "During the second qualifying practice session today car number two, driver Mark Webber, stopped on the circuit at turn 14. It was checked whether car number two had enough fuel on board in order to be driven back to the pits under its own power and in addition to this that a one litre fuel sample could be taken.

"The car had 150ml fuel on board which is not enough for the required one litre fuel sample and to drive the car back to the pits under its own power."

Webber will now start the race from the back of the grid, or from the pit lane if Red Bull chooses to take the car out of parc ferme to make setup changes as it did with Sebastian Vettel in Abu Dhabi last year.

A fuel bowser problem caused an incorrect fuel measurement to be delivered to Mark's car.

— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 13, 2013

After the team confirmed on Twitter that the fuel bowser was the cause of the issue, team principal Christian Horner went in to more detail.

"A frustrating qualifying session for the team and for Mark," he said. "Unfortunately in Q2 the amount of fuel that was required to be put into the car from the fuel rig was not fully delivered. This was due to an error with the fuel bowser that meant it under delivered 3kg of fuel. Therefore on Mark's in-lap we saw large drop outs in the fuel tank collector and the car unfortunately ran dry of fuel, which is obviously frustrating. The fuel bowser has been immediately quarantined for further investigation. It's a shame as he would obviously have made Q3 today and the tactic with both drivers was to adopt the same strategy."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.