• Monaco Grand Prix

Webber rues slow first pit stop

Mark Webber: "There was obviously a communication problem" © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Monaco Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Mark Webber was left ruing a slow first pit stop at the Monaco Grand Prix that dropped him down the order and left him with a tough fight to finish fourth.

Webber started third on the grid but was beaten by Fernando Alonso into the first corner and then struggled to keep pace with the frontrunners early in the race. He made a pit stop on lap 15 but his team was still recovering in the pit lane from a slow stop with Sebastian Vettel and his tyres were not ready.

Webber came out in 14th and spent the rest of his afternoon picking his way back through the field.

"We didn't really go long enough on the first stint, but that's pretty normal for me on these tyres, I just can't go long," Webber said. "That compromised me and then when I arrived at the pits we obviously didn't have any tyres out, so I arrived and the boys were running around and there was obviously a communication problem."

He confirmed that he had not come into the pits of his own accord.

"They called me in, the team called me in," he added. "Obviously when you have to wait around here you lose track position and then you have to wait behind people for the majority of the race, so not bad to get fourth from there."

The race was stopped with six laps left when a three-car pile-up resulted in an ambulance coming on to the circuit to tend to Vitaly Petrov. Webber was fifth at the time and managed to pull a pass on Kamui Kobayashi for fourth in the final laps when the Sauber ran wide at the Nouvelle Chicane.

"Obviously he's a pretty difficult customer and you have to get it right with him," Webber said of Kobayashi. "I followed him for about 25 laps in the middle of the race and I think he hit most fences around the track. He was pushing and it's not easy in the tunnel with everything else that has happened this weekend you want to get it right. So yeah, it [the restart] helped me but I don't know why we restarted the race for the last five laps."

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