Mark Webber says he will take some positives from his fourth place finish in the 2012 Qantas Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The 35-year-old came home in fourth place despite dropping from fifth to ninth at the first corner, where his Red Bull suffered significant contact from both Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India and Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso.
The Australian soon overtook Pastor Maldonado and benefited from the demise of both Michael Schumacher and Romain Grosjean to run sixth by the midway point, before leaping ahead of Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso in the final round of stops.
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The fourth place result marks Webber’s best ever finish at Albert Park – finally eclipsing the fifth he scored on debut with Minardi in 2002.
“There are some positives to take out of today,” said Webber after the race.
“Qualifying was difficult for us, but the race pace was better today, it was just that we didn’t have track position.
“I had a poor start, so I need to see what happened there and then I got sandwiched at Turn 1.
“The car felt quite tricky on the options in the first stint and I wondered if I had some damage from the first corner, but then when I got the primes the race came alive for me.
“We had a bit of luck with the Safety Car and I was quicker than Lewis at the end, but it’s a difficult track to overtake here – in Malaysia it would have been a different story.
“Today was a strong showing for us and it was a good day for Red Bull Racing given what we went to bed with last night, we had a bit on, but this was a good comeback. It was a strong start.”
Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel split the McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton to finish second, despite having started alongside Webber on the third row of the grid.
