• Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying
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Webber 'surprised' and 'disappointed'

ESPNF1 Staff
October 8, 2011 « Hamilton will not affect Massa | Domenicali calls for qualifying tweak »
Mark Webber was 0.7s slower than his team-mate Sebastian Vettel © Sutton Images
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Mark Webber said he was "very surprised" to only qualify sixth on the grid for the Japanese Grand Prix.

While team-mate Sebastian Vettel took his 12th pole position of the season, Webber was also outqualified by both McLarens and Ferraris. Having had to squeeze past Lewis Hamilton at the chicane to start his flying lap, Webber said that he didn't know why he was unable to find the extra pace in the car.

"I'm very surprised to be sixth," Webber said. "I did my best, but it wasn't quick enough and it was a bit of a surprise that I couldn't go with the pace there at the end. Seb obviously did a massive lap for pole so he got on the front row just, which was a great effort. I'm disappointed to be on the third row. The car was pretty good yesterday on the long run - and it was good on short runs too, up until the end there - so clearly I didn't get the most out of it today. I'll wake up and push tomorrow."

Christian Horner said that Webber was closer to the front than sixth place showed.

"With Mark, he was up on his last run and was purple in his first sector," Horner said. "But thereafter the lap seemed to move away from him time-wise and he wasn't able to improve in the final two sectors in a very, very tight grid. Hopefully he can make good progress from there tomorrow."

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