In Abu Dhabi Mark Webber was not able to take advantage of a rare Sebastian Vettel DNF. In Brazil however Webber was in the right place to seize on a gear box issue for Vettel to grab a season ending victory.
The win was his first for the season after having been in the title hunt last season right up the last race.
Once he passed Vettel for the lead the Australian was never really threatened with Vettel holding onto second from a hard charging Jenson Button.
Webber was a happy man post race “It feels very good; it’s always nice to win. The battle with Sebastian wasn’t a strong battle in the end because he had a problem, but even so, my pace was strong and I felt very good in the car.
“It’s a nice way to finish the year. I felt good in the car and getting the fastest laps at the end was very rewarding. Looking back, it wasn’t the greatest season for me, but also not the worst.” was his honest assessment of 2011 post race.
“I had a weak start to the year and wasn’t able to capitalise on misfortune from others or put myself in a situation to win fair and square, which is what you want, but in Motorsport you take the victories when they come.
“So, it was a very important win for me today and for the team to finish on a high is great. I really enjoyed the last few laps. This is a great track for the team and we have gained three wins in a row here.”
For Vettel behind him it was not quite the finish he was after but capped a amazing season for the back to back World Champion “I got the message we had a problem, which was a shame as we had a great start to the race. After that, it was obvious that that I had to shift early and save the gearbox. I hoped it would recover so I kept pushing, but it didn’t happen and then the target was to see the chequered flag.
“Mark had a great race and deserved to win. I got second and I’m happy to have a trophy. It was a great end to the season; to finish with both cars and a one two is very good. I would have loved to have won the race, but nonetheless we had a great season.
Even he was somewhat surprised by the season the team had “It’s really incredible – going into the season we thought we had a competitive car and that maybe we could win some races, but it has been phenomenal. The team has been faultless most of the time and raised their level massively compared to the last two years.
“We enjoy what we do and it’s nice to come into the garage each day and see everyone with a smile on their face being happy. That’s the main thing – we love what we do and are passionate about it.
Button’s final place on the podium capped a strong end to the season for the McLaren team “I couldn’t really get the soft tyre working around here – we had massive degradation on each set – and that prompted the decision to run two sets of Primes in my final two stints. My pace on the Prime was great – and using two sets really meant I could find a good balance and work out where the grip was.
“Earlier in the race, it was disappointing to be passed by Fernando [Alonso]. Out of Turn Five, I saw lots of debris on the circuit, and I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t want to drive over it, and I couldn’t pull to the left because Fernando was there, so I had to back out of it and fall behind. It was a pretty easy move for Fernando to make after that.
“But the Prime was working really well and that helped me chase Fernando down in the final stint and pass him out of Turn Three. Ideally, I wanted to get him into Turn One, because it’s more fun to pass someone without using DRS, but I set him up and got him out of Turn Three after getting a good run along the straight.
“We gave it everything today – and a podium is a great way to end the year. I’ve had 12 podiums from this season’s 19 Grands Prix – and I didn’t finish two of them due to reliability issues. All in all, it’s been a good, consistent season for us.
“There are a lot of positives to take away from this year. We’ll have a strong winter and come out fighting from the first race. We’ve just got to start the season a bit more strongly, that’s all, and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do. We want to make it hard for Red Bull in 2012.
“Finally, I want to say a big thank-you to the whole team – we’ve really grown together this year. I really feel like I’m part of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes family now: there’s an awful lot of passion in our organisation, and I’m proud to be part of it.”
Down the back end of the field young Aussie rising star Daniel Ricciardo had a mixed race and ends the season unsure what he will drive in 2012 but feeling confident he should be on the grid come Melbourne.
“The race was a bit up and down because the pace was a bit mixed. In the first stint for the first laps it seemed that I was quicker than Tonio and Glock but then a few laps later they were pulling away so it was hard to know if I was quicker or not.
"In the second stint we went with option tyres again and our pace wasn’t bad but I think we abused the tyres a bit too much and I had to pit a bit earlier for the primes because the tyres were finished. It took a few laps for the primes to start working but once they did the times were better than ever. At that stage D’Ambrosio was too far in front but the positive thing for me was that I was able to continue producing good lap times towards the end of the race.
"It’s been a really good six months and I’m happy with how the season has gone, you always want a bit more but realistically it has been really good and I have learned a lot. I want to thank HRT and Red Bull for giving me the opportunity to come and do it”.
