• Malaysian Grand Prix

Webber struggles with intermediates

Mark Webber lost ground during the period following the race restart © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Alonso holds off Perez in enthralling race
  

• Race:
• Malaysian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Mark Webber said he was never fully comfortable on the intermediate tyres during the Malaysian Grand Prix but was pleased with fourth place after "some inspired calls" by those ahead of him.

Having been third before the rain intensified Webber lost out to Sergio Perez in the pit stops and then Fernando Alonso at the race restart before also dropping behind his team-mate Sebastian Vettel later in the race. He closed again on Vettel once on slick tyres and inherited fourth when Vettel suffered a late puncture.

Webber admitted that he just didn't feel confident during the long middle stint and was just focused on making sure he kept the car on track.

"On the intermediates especially it's down to how you have the balance, how the pressures are and the feeling and the confidence of the driver in those conditions," Webber said. "I felt more confident before the race was red flagged and on the restart we went to the inters pretty quickly - everyone decided to do that - which was the right thing to do, but it took me too long to get comfortable with the car on the intermediates and that was a very long stint; not very Formula One driving round with that little grip but all of us had to get on with it and keep the cars on the black stuff. Then when the track started to go dry I felt much happier obviously and we were going along alright."

Despite his difficulties Webber said that he was pleased with fourth because Alonso and Perez ahead had benefitted from gambling with strategic calls.

"Still plenty of positives for us out of this weekend. We would have liked a slightly better result but there were some inspired calls up the front, you saw with some strategy here and there and hats off to those guys. When you're in a position to roll the dice a little bit you might get a double six and those guys did today."

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