Mark Webber: “No one’s interested in a shopping list of excuses…”

Mark Webber struggled to conceal his frustration after qualifying only fifth in Abu Dhabi tonight, leaving himself with a huge task if he is going to get back into the title hunt.

He demonstrated his disappointment when he walked out of the compulstory multinational TV scrum after talking only to the BBC and the German media.

“I’m not wrapped of course, to be fifth on the grid is not very good,” he said after the session. “So it’s disappointing of course. But still a long way to go tomorrow. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Would like to have been further up, but couldn’t get the pace. A bit disappointing.

“We need to be there at the end, of course, a lot of things can still happen in the race. Haven’t helped things by our performance today, but we’ve seen races change. The championship isn’t decided today. Would have been nice to be further up. You could be more confident, but at the end of the day we’ll still in the hunt.”

Webber chose to start his crucial final qualifying run with one slow lap before picking up speed for his second, and that might not have been a good choice.

“I just didn’t have the grip that the other guys had. Together with my driving style, lots of different things, they all add up.  Sometimes you’re on pole, sometimes you’re not. It would have been nice to have been on the front row. No one’s interested in a shopping list of excuses, we’ve just got to do the best job we can tomorrow.”