Mark Webber lost his third place in Delhi due to dropping off the pace as stints went on, ultimately leaving him exposed to a successful strategy response from Fernando Alonso and Ferrari.
Webber made an early first stop and was also the first driver to make a second stop and go to the hard tyre. By staying out an extra two laps on his old softs, Fernando Alonso was able to jump the Aussie.
He then managed to stay in front, despite Ferrari’s history of struggling for pace on Pirelli’s harder compounds towards the end of races.
“I lost the podium in the middle of the race, really,” said Webber. “Pretty much the general story this year, we just don’t have the pace at the end of the stints. So you run out of tyres, and then you lose strategy basically, so you’ve got to pit earlier.
“It makes life a lot harder for you. Not quick enough at the end. Reasonable pace at the start of the stints, but as the stints go on obviously I drop back into the clutches of the other guys. We were struggling a little with the balance at the end of the stints.
“That’s the way it was, I could have got Fernando at the end, but the Maccas and Ferraris were pretty strong in that first sector – Jenson got me on the first lap on the back straight. I was quick against them on the first few laps, but after, as soon as you fight, you chew the tyres up.
“In the end it was good to finish, but it would have been nice to get on the podium.”
Webber made an interesting observation about his attempt to re-pass Button on the fourth lap.
“I probably could have gone down the inside of Turn 4, but it was still very dusty. I thought I’d have a bit of a poke round the outside, but he fixed me up on the outside, which is fair enough, as I fixed him up in Korea. That’s the way it goes.”
He added that he an extra challenge when chasing Fernando Alonso in the closing laps: “Traffic was bad, Fernando got the DRS every lap from the backmarkers.”
Adam Cooper F1 
This has been the case for pretty much the whole year has it not? Pirelli has manufactured tires according to the window they have been given, and this seems like a side effect of it. unfortunately, it has destroyed racing for me. Most of the time (similar paced cars of course), instead of racing for position on the track, the drivers are forced to wait for the driver they are racing with to pit and make positions through “undercut”/pit strategy. I hope this “side effect” can be cured somehow.
The Pirelli tires are total crap. The drivers aren’t actually racing with them, but rather trying to do a laptime and make the tires last. Takes all the skill away from the driver.