Mark Webber was free to challenge Vettel for the win: Christian Horner

Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has said that driver Mark Webber was free to challenge Sebastian Vettel for a victory in the closing laps of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Webber, who started the race on pole eventually, came in second behind Vettel after the team introduced a three-stop strategy for the Australian which saw the third place Vettel take lead of the race from long-time race leader Romain Grosjean and second placed Webber.

“Sebastian was able to make that move on Grosjean very quickly. He knew that Mark had gone a difficult route – it wasn’t clear at the point that we went [way] that which was going to be the quicker way to the end of the race,” Horner said.

“Potentially the three-stop looked it but effectively we hedged our bets, split the cars which was then tactically [it was a question of] what do you do as Lotus? Which one do you cover? It was the best option for us as a team. We’d discussed it before the race that the drivers were free to race each other today. But Sebastian making the move early and quickly and getting past Grosjean and building a bit of a lead was critical for his race,” he added.

The team’s decision to employ the new pit strategy came under the spotlight after the race with Webber himself questioning the decision through the team radio.