Mark Webber survived a horrific accident during Sunday’s grand prix in Valencia, one which you’d suspect a driver to sustain heavy injuries. Luckily for Webber, he walked away with just a few cuts and bruises.
“I have a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise I’m fine.”
The Australian came up to the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus on lap nine of the race, but the massive speed advantage of the Red Bull meant Webber was caught out and he hit Heikki, launching himself into the air where he completed a somersault.
“Initially, I thought Heikki was going to let me through without a fight,” said Webber, “but as we approached Turn 12 he started moving towards the middle of the track. As I pulled out from his slipstream, he braked and before I knew what had happened I was pointing at the sky.”
Webber admitted his biggest fear during the incident, was whether or not there was a bridge or advertising hoarding above the track.
“My car felt like it was airborne for a long time, I had time to worry about whether there were any bridges at that point on the track, which, luckily, there weren’t.
“If there had been one, I would have hit it because I went pretty high. But the car stood up to the accident well. This chassis – number 4 – has been good to me: I used it to win back-to-back races in Barcelona and Monaco, and now it’s saved me from serious injury in Valencia.”
Webber did actually hit some advertising signs as he sailed through the air, luckily for him, they were fairly small – avoiding any further damage.
This is Webber’s first retirement of the season and therefore his first non-scoring position, however he remains just 24 points off the lead.
“There’s still everything to play for,” he added. “To be 24 points behind Lewis is nothing when you consider that I scored 50 points in the space of eight days a few races ago. And we’re taking nothing for granted at Red Bull Racing; we need to continue working flat-out because our rivals are bringing updates to every race. There are now four drivers who have two wins apiece – Lewis, Jenson, myself and Seb – and it’s going to be a fascinating second half of the year.”
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