Webber came into the Korean race weekend knowing what his role would be come Sunday afternoon.
Following the developments of the Red Bull car over the last few races, the Australian’s team-mate was back in pole position in the title picture. With back-to-back race wins Sebastian Vettel had closed the gap to Fernando Alonso and had the chance to take the lead in the championship come Sunday evening.
Webber’s role would be to aid his team-mate, whilst also beating Alonso, maximising the points gain his German team-mate could take and Webber played the perfect team role all weekend.
In FP1 Webber actually set a time faster than Vettel and later in the afternoon he stayed within 0.032seconds of him.
In FP3 Webber was well over a second down on Vettel obviously testing something for race day, but once qualifying came around the Aussie’s pace was back with Webber taking pole position.
?It was a tight session for all of us. I think as the session unfolded, people were having different balance issues on different tyre compounds. I was happy with my lap there, it was solid and it?s good to get pole. It?s a great place to start the race from. I?m looking to get off the first corner very well, that?s important as there are two long straights after that.? Webber told formula1.com during the qualifying press conference.
With Webber’s supporting role obvious, it was clear that at some stage Vettel would have to pull rank over his team-mate, but from the start of the Korean Grand Prix it was clear that the two Red Bull cars were allowed to race.
Webber’s start was good, but Vettel’s was better and the German squeezed through at the first corner, Webber fought back down the long straight but couldn’t get passed his team-mate and ended up having to defend his position against a lively Fernando Alonso.
But once the first lap had got out of the way the Red Bull drivers settled down into an easy weekend, securing a one-two finish, with Vettel re-taking the lead of the drivers championship.
?I had a bit too much clutch off the line, which was disappointing. I put up a fight on the back straight with Sebastian, as it wasn?t all over. I tried to make a move, but once I pulled out of his slipstream, both of us were on the same speed. After that I was going quite well in the first part of the race. I couldn?t use DRS, due to the yellow flags and after that it became a tyre battle. The second stint wasn?t so good, as I went a bit slower to conserve the tyres, but that made the degradation a bit worse. The last stint was the strongest, but it was too late by then. Congratulations to Sebastian on the win and it?s great for the team that we got a one two, especially for the Constructors?
Red Bull’s lead in the constructors stands at 77 points over second place Ferrari.
Kor GP – Race weekend recap – Webber
