• Japanese Grand Prix

Fourth was the best we could do - Webber

Mark Webber: "We had to do it all around the stops" © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Japanese Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Mark Webber said fourth place was the best he could achieve from sixth on the grid at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Webber struggled in qualifying after getting held up by Lewis Hamilton at the final chicane and started further down the field than he would have hoped. At the start he maintained position and then tried to come through the field by pitting earlier than his rivals and putting in fast laps on fresh tyres.

"Obviously there was no passing on track today and we had to do it all around the stops and that was the best we could do - to jump Lewis and Felipe," Webber said. "Obviously there was the safety car and it would have been nice to maybe have a look at Fernando around the penultimate stop if the field had been more spread out. But I think when the field bunched back up you obviously had to go through the backmarker situation again so it's hard to undercut people. In the end it was a reasonable result. Congratulations to JB, for him it's a second home race in many ways, and congratulations to Seb on the world title."

Midway through the race Webber made contact with Michael Schumacher as he got stuck behind the Mercedes in the opening sector of the lap. However, he played down the damage it caused to his car.

"Obviously it was a crucial part of the race for me to come back through and I had a little bit of contact," he said. "He knows all about that from years gone by, it happens. Anyway, we got away with it."

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