• Hungarian Grand Prix

Webber predicts close battle

Mark Webber expects to have Ferrari and McLaren challenging for victory © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Hungarian Grand Prix

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• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Ferrari
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• Red Bull

Mark Webber says he expects McLaren and Ferrari to give Red Bull a close race in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Webber was third in the German Grand Prix last weekend, but was unable to match the pace of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso across the race distance despite having taken pole position. With three different teams fighting for victory at the Nurburgring, Webber's RB7 should be more suited to the Hungaroring circuit, but he said he still expected at least one other team to challenge for the win.

"It will be tight again, all three teams have shown form," Webber said. "McLaren and Ferrari aren't hanging around and qualifying has tightened up a bit. Whether it's three [teams fighting] remains to be seen but two could definitely challenge for the victory."

Germany was the fourth time in a row that Webber had failed to convert pole in to a victory, but he is still second in the championship even though he is yet to win a race this season, and Webber said that was all that was missing from this year.

"I'm looking to give it another crack this weekend. I've been consistent but I'm not getting carried away with my recent runs of results - we still need to tick that final box."

Having called on Red Bull to improve its race pace, Webber said he didn't want the team to start taking unnecessary risks.

"There are no knee-jerk reactions. We don't start planning more stuff faster than we would have done. We were a little bit off the pace in the Nurburgring, we need to go quicker again. The most important thing is to react in a positive and constructive way."

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