20 April 2009

Mark Webber gets onto the podium

| johnboy
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The New York Times notes that Queanbeyan’s Mark Webber has managed a career best second place in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai yesterday.

With his Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel winning the race it looks like the team will be very competitive this year. So who knows, maybe he’ll get a win!

UPDATED: Furry Jesus sent in the following as a story which I’ve rolled in here:

    Local Boy Makes Good

    Despite the rain in Shanghai, at last our Mark Webber has finally felt some F1 sunshine. After his near-win in Sepang a couple of weeks ago was lost to tyre strategies in the soaking conditions there, Webber was back at the front of the pack in Shanghai yesterday, snapping at the heels of his scrawny young team mate, the rising star Sebastian Vettel.

    Red Bull had a dream day, starting with their first ever pole position courtesy of Vettel, and dominated the wet conditions to take first and second ahead of Jenson Button, 11 seconds separating winner Vettel from Webber in second place.

    After coming to F1 in 2002, Webber drove for a string of turkeys (Minardi via Jaguar to Williams), making him one of the most unfortunate F1 drivers in a long time as he struggled with cars that even Ayrton Senna would have been hard-pressed to drive, managing only two third places until yesterday. His career is littered with DNFs due to either mechanical unreliability or collisions with other drivers (mostly their fault, I say without bias).

    But now it seems that his decision to stick with Red Bull is paying off, with what looks like a much stronger and more reliable car. Is this second position a foretaste of things to come? Will he be feeling humiliated by Vettel ‘s success, and push himself to show the younger driver that he has what it takes? Or has he been a midfielder for too long, and lost the chance to develop that winning edge? Certainly his pass on Button in Shanghai towards the end of the race, to retake the second position which Button had just snatched from him with an equally artful move, shows that he has the nerve and the reflexes.

    Roll on Bahrain.

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Instant Mash7:39 pm 21 Apr 09

Reprobate said :

I have always said that Mark Webber was the best thing to come out of Queanbeyan since Canberra Avenue.

That, good sir, is an epic burn.

I applaude you.

Skidd Marx said :

You are whatever you sound like.

Anybody else find that statement ironic, noting it comes a Rioter calling himself ‘Skid Marx’?

You are whatever you sound like. I’m not supporting Chad Reed because he’s a seppo.

Skidd Marx said :

I refuse to support anyone with an American accent. I also refuse to support anyone with the first name “Chad”. Chad Reed fails on both counts.

If you were truly pedantic and based your support on a sports persons speech, you would only be following a select few. For instance, Casey Stoner says “ya know” three or four times in every barreling sentence, as do 85% of League players, written them off too? David Warner is a big offender on that front.
These blokes aren’t paid for how they speak, they are paid for their sporting prowess.

Gerge Lazenby is from Quangers – he made a pretty good James Bond ONCE 🙂

G-Fresh said :

Alexander said :

I’m a big supporter of local sporting talent…and Webber really has had a lot of bad luck in F1. Let’s hope that this is the start of a string of podiums for a local guy with a heap of talent!

Good to see. Now it’d be good to see a little more support for our other unsung aussie motorsport hero’s, like Chad Reed (AMA World Champion) and Chris Vermeulen (MotoGP weapon).

I refuse to support anyone with an American accent. I also refuse to support anyone with the first name “Chad”. Chad Reed fails on both counts.

Die Lefty Scum12:30 pm 21 Apr 09

Webber would definitely be in my Top 10 of F1 drivers to have come out of Queanbeyan.

I have always said that Mark Webber was the best thing to come out of Queanbeyan since Canberra Avenue.

Alexander said :

I’m a big supporter of local sporting talent…and Webber really has had a lot of bad luck in F1. Let’s hope that this is the start of a string of podiums for a local guy with a heap of talent!

Good to see. Now it’d be good to see a little more support for our other unsung aussie motorsport hero’s, like Chad Reed (AMA World Champion) and Chris Vermeulen (MotoGP weapon).

I’m a big supporter of local sporting talent…and Webber really has had a lot of bad luck in F1. Let’s hope that this is the start of a string of podiums for a local guy with a heap of talent!

Good work Mark. Lets hope he goes one better in Bahrain!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy8:41 am 21 Apr 09

He got an F1 car, you got a Berlina. Ripped off!

Thanks for rubbing it in!

Seriously, though, he has done bloody well to get to where he is. You don’t come second in an F1 without a serious dose of talent.

Still, if he’d sat next to me in 6th grade as well, he may well have won.

“The New York Times notes that Queanbeyan’s Mark Webber has managed a career best second place in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai yesterday.”

We truly are a multi-cultural place arent we? A website in Canberra linking to a newspaper site in New York, who are reporting on a Queanbeyan driver in a race in China.

There were a few crashes and mistakes by other drivers but Webber didn’t quite get a Steve Bradbury.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

Webbers an OK driver, but his age is starting to count against him. Unless he gets a big result in the next couple of years, he could well be finished. Hopefully he’ll have the car he needs now and starts bringing home some wins.

As an aside, I sat next to Mark Webber for much of 5th grade!

He got an F1 car, you got a Berlina. Ripped off!

That is great news. Mark has always been a likeable guy and has had far too many DNFs. I also like the fact that he is proud of where he comes from and wears his Queanbeyan heart on his sleeve.

BTW has anyone else seen the picture of a gangly, teenage Mark carrying a bucket of sand out to Mal Meninga for a conversion kick? Classic…

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

I sat next to Mark Webber for much of 5th grade!

The headline ‘Mark Webber sat next to VYBerlina at age 11’ wouldn’t raise much interest internationally I’m afraid.

As an aside, I sat next to Mark Webber for much of 5th grade!

You’re right, he must be getting old.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy6:34 pm 20 Apr 09

No. No you cannot.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

As an aside, I sat next to Mark Webber for much of 5th grade!

Can I have your autograph?

Growling Ferret said :

Unfortunately for him, his team mate is now THE best wet weather driver. Vettel will be World Drivers Champion one day.

That’s the luck he has. He finally gets a car that’s capable of winning a race but when it happens he has a team mate that’s going to be a star.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy6:19 pm 20 Apr 09

Webbers an OK driver, but his age is starting to count against him. Unless he gets a big result in the next couple of years, he could well be finished. Hopefully he’ll have the car he needs now and starts bringing home some wins.

As an aside, I sat next to Mark Webber for much of 5th grade!

Growling Ferret6:16 pm 20 Apr 09

Webber used to be one of the best wet weather drivers, always getting better results than his team mates and especially at Monaco and wet races where the cars lack of technical ability could be masked by a drivers skill.

Unfortunately for him, his team mate is now THE best wet weather driver. Vettel will be World Drivers Champion one day.

Instant Mash5:28 pm 20 Apr 09

Webber has always been a good driver. He just has the worst luck of any driver I’ve ever seen. All he needs is a decent, reliable car.

Did he actually get better at driving his car, or did the rain just make everyone else suck?

Instant Mash5:07 pm 20 Apr 09

Congratulations to him!

Hopefully, his terrible luck is starting to turn.

Huzzah!

Go Webber!

It was great to see him do so well… unfortunately F1 drivers are only as good as their team & the teams tactics and vice versa. Now, if only SCTen would get OneHD into the ACT I could watch the F1 at a reasonable time.

Mark Webber the Wally Masur of F1. Close but no cigar…..yet

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