• Hungarian Grand Prix

Webber happy to take 'gifted' victory

ESPNF1 Staff
August 1, 2010 « Rubens fumes at 'dangerous' Schumacher move | »
Mark Webber sprays champagne on the podium © Getty Images
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Mark Webber admitted his victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was a gift after Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel had to serve a drive-through penalty.

Webber chose not to pit during the safety car period and in doing so took the lead after a bad start. Vettel had pitted and came out in second place, ready to take the lead back when Webber stopped for his tyres. However, Vettel did not maintain a gap less than ten car lengths to Webber at the restart and in doing so broke the regulations, dropping him to third after he served his penalty.

"I knew that Seb had some difficulties on the restart for whatever reason and it was a bit of a gift today for me," Webber said. "But I haven't had many of them [gifts] so I'll take today's. Tough luck to Seb, obviously he lost a couple of spots at under the safety car."

Webber opted for a different strategy after he fell behind Fernando Alonso at the start, staying out as long as possible on the soft tyres until he had a big enough gap over the Ferrari to come out in front.

"The start was tricky on that side of the grid and Fernando got a good start," Webber explained. "Seb had a good start and Lewis was there as well. It was not a surprise to see Seb disappearing then I had to go off strategy to go past Fernando with the safety car.

"It asked a lot of the option tyres and I needed around 20 seconds to maintain the lead after my stop. The front left tyre was finished and it was difficult to finish the stint in the end. But I knew when I got the primes on that the race was in the bag."

To top the weekend off, Webber lapped seven-time champion Michael Schumacher and said over the radio: "That feels good." However, after the race he said that it was not a vindictive comment.

"Well he lapped me lot when I was in the middle of the field so to lap a driver of the calibre of Michael is a good day out," he added. "It's not rubbing anyone's nose in it, it's just a unique thing to happen."

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