Mark Webber was caught out in qualifying in Spain when his Red Bull team decided that his first lap in Q2 was going to be good enough to keep him in the top 10.
However when others did second runs and went faster, the Aussie found himself bumped down to 12th as he sat in the pits. He has subsequently gained a place from the Lewis Hamilton penalty, but he was convinced that he had the pace to qualify second – which ultimately of course became pole.
After qualifying his sense of humour remained intact.
“We had a pretty straightforward session,” he said. “Everything went to plan until everyone went too quick, basically! Also the track got massively quick. In Q2 how much the track was improving was something that caught us out. Ultimately my first lap in Q2 was very competitive, P2 to Lewis. That one tenth of a second was enough to cost us a front row.
“As soon as I arrived back they said, ‘Mark, fantastic lap, that’s it, get ready for Q3. Then with about 60 seconds to go I started to shit myself, and that was it.
“We got exposed because of the track conditions. If you look how the track changed in China, Melbourne and Malaysia in Q2, it hasn’t been so severe. Here it was massive and that’s what bit us in the arse.”
Webber was also handicapped by the fact that on his sole Q2 lap he carried enough fuel for a second lap, in case he hit traffic and needed to carry on round. He didn’t need it, and without that extra weight, he would have been safe.
“I nailed the first lap and ultimately I had too much fuel to do that lap,” he told this writer.
He is still hopeful of a good race on Sunday.
“Obviously the grid position is not very nice, around here especially. It’s like Bahrain in terms of overtaking, but we can still do well from there. The guys have done such a bloody good job all weekend, the car’s been good. OK, we still didn’t have the perfect balance in qualifying. We had to still keep improving the car throughout qualifying, and we were looking to do that into Q3, but we never got there.”
Adam Cooper F1 