March 29, 2009

The first corner carnage that ruined Mark Webber's Australian Grand Prix was one of the most frustrating and disappointing things to happen in his motor racing career.

The Australian had shown speed through practice and qualifying and his Red Bull car started the Formula One season-opener from eighth on the grid.

But any hope of bettering his fifth place finishes in 2002 and 2005 were gone inside the opening 10 seconds of Sunday's race.

Webber was caught in a first-corner sandwich between Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello, BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren, and his car emerged sliced and diced.

"It's one of the most frustrating and disappointing things that's happened to me," Webber said immediately after the race.

"All the people come to see you at your home track, you're hoping for a good race for them, and that happens on the first lap.

"These things (cars) don't do demolition derbies too well."

Webber was forced into a pit stop for running repairs which put him a lap down, though he did keep circling to eventually finish 13th.

But the damage had been done to his car - losing downforce and making handling cumbersome for the remaining 57 laps.

Webber felt Barrichello, who went on to finish second to Brawn GP teammate Jenson Button, was to blame on first impression.

"I thought it was all okay until Rubens arrived but I haven't seen it, so it's hard to tell. The damage to the car was done from that point," Webber said.

"I lost virtually all downforce after that."

But Barrichello blamed another car for nudging him into the 32-year-old Australian.
Webber, who went into his home GP still recovering from a broken leg and shoulder competing in an off-season adventure race in Tasmania, looks to be facing a challenging year.

While he limped around Albert Park, Webber's German teammate Sebastian Vettel showed rocket-like speed throughout to sit second until he crashed spectacularly with three laps left.

Vettel's tangle with third-placed Robert Kubica's BMW-Sauber brought out the safety car to close an eventful GP.

Vettel - 11 years Webber's junior and clearly F1's coming man - showed enough speed to raise the bar for both his Red Bull team and his Australian teammate. But the youngster still finished one place behind the veteran.