Top five drivers of the Japanese GP

Mark Webber

Mark Webber made most of Vettel’s problems on Saturday to take his first pole of the season. However, on a different strategy to Grosjean and Vettel, he couldn’t come out on top on Sunday.

Webber made a poor getaway and lost his lead to Romain Grosjean. He then settled in second, maintaining a decent gap both in front and behind him. He was the first of the trio to pit on lap 11. After the race, Christian Horner said that it was this short stint that forced Red Bull to turn his race into a three stop strategy.

He then did another short stint on hard tyres before coming in again on lap 25. Webber’s laptime were pretty good at this time which raises questions why Red Bull didn’t extend this stint somewhere around lap 29 when Grosjean made his stop.

After his third stop on lap 42, Webber came out four seconds behind Grosjean whose tyres were now 13 laps old. Webber had to overtake Grosjean in next couple of laps to have a shot at challenging Vettel for the lead. Instead, it took the 37 year old eight laps to get past the Frenchman. By that time it was too late for Webber to come anywhere close to Vettel’s gearbox, let alone having a chance of overtaking him.