Mark Webber overcame a slow start to grab second place behind teammate and World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel at the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps overnight.
Further back in the field young Aussie Daniel Ricciardo had his first DNF when his HRT F1 car expired on track following a solid and encouraging start to the race.
For Webber the result was however marred by the start and late call on a pit stop under the safety car “The lights went out and I got anti-stall at the start – I don’t know whether it was due to the start being uphill or not" remarked post race.
"We were worried about the tyres going into the race and had a lot of meetings this morning. In the end, the right decisions were made and the team reacted incredibly well and did some good research overnight to work out how we could best get through the race.
"We did a lot of damage to the tyres in qualifying and had to stop pretty early to protect ourselves from any issues from the tyre which put us out of position. We picked some people off, but in terms of the result I was after I was frustrated at that point.
"Then the safety car came out. The team wanted me to pit, but when I got the instructions of what to do in the pit lane I was the wrong side of the pit wall – I never heard the call to come in. I was worried, but we kept going and the car behaved well.
Overall though the Australian was able to reflect on a good result for the team "I drove well from then on and we got a good result in what was one of the team’s best ever one-two finishes. It was a great weekend for the team and they deserve this result.”
For Ricciardo despite the short time in the race there were positives “I can’t be fully satisfied because it has been a short race for me but at least the time I was out there was really positive" was his upbeat assessment post race
"I made a good start and then benefited from some incidents ahead but also made the right choice which let me pick up a few spots.
"The pace was quite good, a few of the faster cars ended up coming back through but we let them go without losing much time with our direct rivals.
"It was looking quite good ahead of the Virgins and Lotus. Unfortunately we had a problem with the rear which made us end the race prematurely. But there is no doubt that there are some positives to take.
"It would have been nice to finish but we’ve always got next time. From my side I’m happy with how the race was going and we will try to build on it for the next Grand Prix in Monza.”
