This accident should never have happened - Webber
Mark Webber’s European Grand Prix came to a premature end on Sunday when he suffered a horrifying accident at 300kph. At the time of the crash on lap nine, he was fighting his way through tailenders, having made an early pitstop, and he made contact with Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus.
Webber said: “Initially, I thought Heikki was going to let me through without a fight, 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. The telemetry showed that he braked 80 metres earlier for that corner than I had on the previous lap, so it was completely unexpected.”
What followed was a terrifying sequence of events. Webber’s RB6 headed skywards, then landed upside down – still doing 240kph – before hitting a kerb, flipping upright and ploughing headfirst into the barrier.
“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.
“I have a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise I’m fine. What’s frustrating was that this accident should never have happened. I understand as well as anyone that F1 isn’t a charity event; you have to fight for every position – but not when you’re five seconds off the pace and you have one of the quickest cars in the pack behind you. I mean, how long was Heikki going to stay ahead of me? Another 15 seconds? He must be asking himself whether it was worth it.”
