Mark Webber back-flipped into his team’s harbour-side pool after holding off a high-powered tail of five top rivals over the final laps of the Monaco Grand Prix. The 35-year-old Red Bull driver started from pole and controlled the race brilliantly to become the first Australian to win twice in Monte Carlo, following his 2010 victory.
It was his eighth career Grand Prix win and lifted him to joint second place in the driver’s world championship, level with teammate and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel and three behind Fernando Alonso. Webber was the sixth different winner in the six races so far this year, the first time that has happened in Formula 1 racing.
He finished six-tenths of a second clear of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg with Alonso third for Ferrari, closely followed home by Vettel, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Felipe Massa (Ferrari).
“It’s a tough nut to crack this race, but we did it again,” said Webber, whose first-ever podium finish was also in the principality, in 2005. “I had both hands on it today and I wasn’t going to let go… It’s an amazing day for the team, myself and really happy to have won here again… It’s Monaco. You never get ahead of yourself here because you get bitten in the arse.”
(Photos: Clive Mason & Mark Thompson/Getty Images)