Yeongam, South Korea - Australian Mark Webber remained bullish about his chances of winning this year’s Formula One world championship, despite losing his leadership after crashing out of Sunday’s Korean Grand Prix.
The 34-year-old Red Bull driver spun his car during the early laps of a delayed and interrupted, but wildly dramatic, rain-hit race while running in second place and hit a curb and a wall before colliding with German Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes car.
The accident left him pointless and cost him top spot in the title race with two events remaining in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari took over as leader.
Webber collected himself, however, and remained defiant in his bid to become the third Australian after Jack Brabham and Alan Jones to lift the title.
“It’s not easy, but I can still do it, absolutely,” he said on Monday. “Positions are not really important at the moment — the points are the important thing. They can change very quickly. This is my second non-finish of the year, but there are still two races to go and I will do my absolute best.”
Webber conceded that his accident was all his own fault.
“I got a wheel on the curb on the exit of turn 12 and it was a very slow-motion moment. Totally my mistake,” he said.
“It was a very long slide and so frustrating. I thought I had done enough, but in the end it wasn’t enough,” he added.
While Webber bemoaned his fortune, Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, the 2008 champion, is optimistic that he is still in the hunt thanks to finishing second, his first podium finish in four races. “It is definitely back on and it is possible, but we need to keep pushing and we need some luck,” he said.
“We will keep pushing and as you saw anything can happen, we didn’t expect two Red Bulls to go out, but that is how close this championship is. Fernando is quick but it is still open.”
His McLaren teammate and countryman Jenson Button was downbeat after finishing 12th and acknowledged his title defense was virtually over. He is 42 points behind Alonso with two races remaining.
“Everyone else needs to have failures,” Button said. “That’s the way it is. I don’t know what happened, but there must have been something wrong because the car was undriveable,” the defending champion added.
“If I can’t mathematically win it I’d do whatever I needed to, to help the team. My championship, if the other guys don’t have non-scores or issues, is pretty much over. But you don’t win championships by sitting back and saying ‘I can’t win it any more’. You have to keep on fighting.”
Agence France-Presse
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