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Mark Webber did an impressive job to overcome front wing damage in Canada to not only finish fourth but also set fastest lap.

After the race the Aussie made it very clear that he was not impressed with Giedo van der Garde, who received a drive through penalty after the pair collided.

Webber felt that with an undamaged car he might have had a better chance of fighting for a podium.

“I got a sensational start,” he said. “I really didn’t have too many places to go. I went to the middle and obviously Bottas and Nico were in there, so I had to go to the other side, and I lost a little bit of momentum. It was a bit like Monaco. We’re getting our starts sorted, but these last two races we haven’t had opportunities to show how good they’ve been.

“But anyway, I settled in behind Nico, and it became quite evident that he was managing the pace a little bit more, and trying to clear him wasn’t that easy. We had the car very critical on temperatures, so I had to sit out of the slipstream and manage the car temperature, which was also a little bit of a curveball.

“Mercedes covered us well at the stop, and then the battle was on again. I was happy to see Mercedes did the option for Nico, because I thought that was going to bite him in the arse, and it turned out it did, which was good. I finally got past him, the car was happy then obviously, and we could get into a rhythm – until we caught a pay driver with no mirrors, and then I lost the front wing…

“The car was very damaged from that. It was very difficult from there. I was very keen to get on the podium, I think we had everything teed up very well to do that, but you can’t have a bleeding car with Fernando around you. He’s going to capitalise on that.”

Regarding problems with backmarkers Webber said: “They’re doing their own race as well obviously, I’ve been there in a Minardi, I’ve been there in a shitbox, but you need to look in your mirrors. When the guys fighting for the podium are coming along, there’s four corners with blue flags… We can’t disappear into a hole either. That was that.”

Meanwhile Christian Horner agreed that the collision was not Webber’s fault.

“Van Der Garde left the door open,” said Horner. “It’s under blue flags, it’s his responsibility to make way for the race leaders coming through, and then he just turned back. It was just a silly move. He obviously got a penalty for it, but he just wasn’t aware of what was going on.

Horner said the team considered changing the nose but opted not to: “We looked at it but the performance loss was outweighed by the time loss to change the nose box in the pitlane. So we decided to leave it.

“I’m sure without that [damaged] front wing he could have held Fernando off, or maybe closed down Lewis.”

Red Bull Racing issued a statement today confirming that Sebastian Vettel will stay with the team for another two seasons.

Although it was clear that Vettel already had a long term arrangement with RBR the news erases any doubts about him possibly jumping ship in 2015.

The statement read simply: “Infiniti Red Bull Racing is happy to confirm that World Champion Sebastian Vettel has extended his multi-year contract with the team until the end of 2015.”

Nico Rosberg says Mercedes has a lot of work to do after he finished only fifth in Canada, two places behind team mate Lewis Hamilton.

The race underlined that Monaco was a blip, and the team is still struggling to get its tyres to work on race days.

“Not great, I just didn’t have the speed really to do better than fifth place,” said Rosberg. “So from that point of view it’s just damage limitation and good points. Our reference point today as a team is where Lewis was, which was third, and that shows that we definitely need to make further progress, not just in how we manage the tyres and everything.

“On one lap we had the fastest car, but we’re still struggling a little bit in the race, not able to do better than third place.”

Regarding the next race at Silverstone he said: “Some work to do for us, because with those high speed corners it could be quite heavy on the tyres. But I think we’ll be OK.”

The marshal who died in Montreal on Sunday has been named in the Canadian media as 38-year-old Mark Robinson.

Robinson, who was single and worked in logistics for UPS, was crushed by the wheels of a recovery crane carrying the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez.

Robinson is described by friends as a racing fanatic for whom the chance to work at the Canadian GP was a highlight of his year. He would have turned 39 tomorrow [Wednesday].

Friend and former roommate Marty Dewey told the Canadian Press: “F1 for him was kind of like getting a chance to be a roadie for the Rolling Stones once a year. He thought about it, talked about it. For a quiet guy, if you started talking F1 with this guy, you wouldn’t be able to quiet him down.”

Known as ‘Coach’ by his friends, he had a wide range of other sporting interests, and was a regular softball player.

This writer, who watched the first half of the Canadian GP standing with the marshals stationed at Turn 2, sends his condolences to Mark’s family, friends and fellow officials.

Jenson Button blamed his one-stop strategy for a disappointing run to 12^th place in Montreal, where both McLaren drivers missed the points.

Meanwhile Button is adamant that his team can take a step forward at the next race on home ground at Silverstone.

“I’m still looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s the home Grand Prix and it’s always exciting racing in front of the home crowd. Also I love Silverstone, it’s a great circuit. Are we going to be quick there, or quicker? Yes, we had some parts on the car here that didn’t work for this type of circuit, but we know they’ll work for Silverstone.

“So yes I’m looking forward to it, and I think we can start picking up bigger points, like the last few races, really. I don’t think we’re going to be on the podium, but getting into the points has got to be our aim.”

Button struggled in the race with tyre issues in his first stint and then an overly conservative pace in the second.

“We went for a one-stop strategy which worked for some people, doing prime and option. I went option-prime, and the problem was on the first stint I had so much graining. I was getting overtaken by the people that had stopped, which cost me a lot of time.

“It is what it is, and then we tried to settle into a pace on the prime tyre in the second stint which was way too slow. We’ve got to look into why we thought that was quick enough, that lap time. As soon as I started pushing the pace was quite a bit better. In the end we had very old tyres and we were quicker than the cars in front. Still, outside the points, and a lot of work to do.”

Asked if he would have preferred rain, Jenson said: “I don’t really know what we hoped for this weekend! It rained yesterday and we didn’t really take much out of that either. We’ve just got to get our act together and improve.”

The FIA has now officially confirmed that the International Tribunal hearing regarding Mercedes and Pirelli will take place in Paris on June 20, a date that was expected over the Montreal weekend.

The FIA has also confirmed that Pirelli will be alongside Mercedes in the dock, despite the fact that the original protest was against the team.

An FIA statement today read:

Disciplinary procedure against Mercedes and Pirelli (2013 FIA Formula One World Championship)

On 5 June 2013, further to protests lodged during the 2013 Monaco GP by Red Bull Racing and Ferrari Scuderia Team against cars n°9 and 10 (Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team) for having conducted with Pirelli a three day tyre testing using a 2013 car on 15, 16 and 17 May in Barcelona, the President of the FIA, acting as the FIA Prosecuting Body, sent to the President of the International Tribunal a notification of charges against Pirelli and a notification of charges against Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.

On 5 June 2013, Pirelli and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team have been convened by the President of the International Tribunal to appear before a judging panel of the International Tribunal.

The FIA added: “The decision of the International Tribunal will be published as soon as possible after the hearing.”

A Canadian GP marshal died on Sunday evening after being hit by a tow truck that was carrying the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez back to the pits.

An FIA statement said:  “The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up. As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle.

“The worker was transported via helicopter to Sacre-Coeur Hospital where he was treated by the traumatology department of Dr Ronald Denis, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Dr Jacques Bouchard, Chief Medical Officer of the Grand Prix. Unfortunately, the worker succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.”

A return to limited in-season testing took a step closer on Saturday when the FIA met with the team managers to fine tune the details.

The plans were discussed in Monaco by the bosses of the six teams in the ‘Strategy Group,’ compromising Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Lotus and Williams. The next step is formal approval by the World Motor Sport Council later this month.

The intention is to have eight days of testing in 2014, split over four two-day sessions. All will take place on the Wednesday/Thursday after a race weekend. No venues have been confirmed as the calendar has not yet been finalised, but likely candidates include Barcelona, Hockenheim, Hungary and Spa.

As part of the arrangement teams will give up aero testing and most of the promotional/filming days that they current undertake, probably leaving just two of the latter.

There are some reservations about the new system, with the smaller teams concerned that their crews will now have to stay an extra five days at those venues, while larger teams have more capacity to fly in extra staff to assist with night shifts. Most teams will also now have to prepare a separate test car and bring it to the track while sending the race cars home.

The lack of aero tests and filming days will make up for some of the difficulties, at least for the teams that have used their full allocation. Teams regard even a 100km filming day as an ‘event’ that require extensive preparation and organisation, and typically they have been running 12 aero and filming events. Adding four tests to a race weekend makes the logistics less complicated.