Mark Webber has conceded that his chances of winning this year’s Formula One Championship is over.
The Australian crashed out of the Italian Grand Prix last night after early contact with Ferrari’s Felipa Massa.
Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel won the race at Monza – his eighth win from 13 this season. The win puts him 112 points ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in the championship with a maximum of 150 points still available.
Speaking to television reporters after his race was run, Webber said that he will aim to finish second in the title.
“I think we’re all battling for second now,” Webber said.
“I think Seb needs to have a very, very incredibly disappointing finish to the season for anyone to take the championship off him at this point.
“He’s in a great position. He’s done a great job. And clearly the car was good today, so it was a missed opportunity for me.”
After qualifying fifth, Webber made an average start and was lucky to miss being collected by the HRT F1 car of Vitantonio Liuzzi.
On lap seven, Webber tried a brave move around the outside of Massa, clipping the rear of the Ferrari and damaging his front wing. Webber continued, but when he reached the Parabolica, his car left the track and hit the wall.
“I didn’t get the best start, me and Jenson were together, so I lost a few spots there,” Webber explained.
“There was the restart after the safety car; I got a good one that time and managed to pass Jenson straight away. Then, on the next lap, I was lining up Felipe, braking around the outside for turn 1, trying to get the inside line for turn two. I probably wasn’t quite far enough to get completely inside, but when I tried to come out of the move the kerbing on the inside is obviously pretty high.
:As soon as I touched that I unfortunately made contact with Felipe and that was that. I then tried to get back to the pits, trying to lose the minimum time possible, the car wasn’t too bad for the first part of the lap, but at some stage the wing got caught underneath, so I couldn’t turn the car or brake.
“I went straight out of Parabolica and that was the end of my race.”
The next round of the F1 World Championship will be held on the Singapore street track in two weeks time.
