Mark Webber won his first race of the year when he took advantage of Red Bull team-mate and twice world champion Sebastian Vettel’s gearbox issues to win the season finale Brazilian F1 Grand Prix.
Driving with precision in a copy-book performance, Webber came home 16.9 seconds ahead of Vettel to give Red Bull its third one-two finish of the Formula 1 season with Button third for McLaren.
Australian Webber scored his seventh career win to finish third in the drivers championship behind Vettel and McLaren Mercedes’ Jenson Button.
Vettel who started from his record 15th pole of the year, established a lead of more than a second on the opening lap ahead of Webber and Button and by lap three Vettel was 2.2 seconds clear when gear box problems forced him to slow. Webber took the lead after 30 laps when the struggling Vettel accepted the team’s advice to ease off and nurse his car home to second place.
Alonso took fourth with Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa fifth, Adrian Sutil of Force India and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came in sixth and seventh.
Rookie Paul Di Resta came home eighth for Force India in an impressive first season, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber and Vitaly Petrov of Renault.
Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna collided with the seven time German world champion suffering a tyre puncture while Senna earned the stewards wrath with a drive-through penalty, which effectively ended his hopes of placing in his home town race. Right: Surrounded by members of their team, Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Australian Mark Webber, hold trophies as they celebrate at the end of the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix last Sunday. Photo: AP /Andre Penner