Mark Webber admits that a mistake on his final qualifying lap not only cost him a shot at pole in Hockenheim, but also dumped him to fourth behind Felipe Massa.
Webber went off at the start of his last lap, and thus had to settle for the time he’d set earlier on his first run.
“Today I lost my last run, so that was a mistake from my side,” said Webber. “It was a pretty tight qualy until then. I would like to of course had my last attempt, because that’s when you need to do it. But I got Turn One wrong, and I paid the price obviously to have a chance of maybe going for the front row, but it definitely lost third place. First time I’ve been off the front row for a long time, but looking forward to the race tomorrow.
“I was just looking to get the nice clean line in, but I must have got a little bit on the kerb on the outside. I didn’t even get into the apex. So, totally my fault.”
Webber says that from fourth place it won’t be impossible to make progress: “Yeah, you can pass. I haven’t seen the top speeds yet, but it’s not Barcelona. It should be pretty interesting to see how the race unfolds in that sense.”
He insists that he’s not been surprised by Ferrari’s pace this weekend.
“Not really. They were very, very quick in Silverstone to be honest, but they had a poor first lap with Fernando. I went to my pub during the week, and the guy said any tips on who I should put my money on, because all the odds are very short. I said put some money on Alonso to win Budapest. So maybe I’m wrong, maybe he wins tomorrow!”
Adam Cooper F1 