FORMULA ONE:IF MARK Webber was aware of Jenson Button's pre-practice suggestion that the unfamiliar burden of leading the Formula One world championship as the season enters its endgame might weigh heavily on his shoulders, the Australian driver paid scant attention as he powered his Red Bull to the second fastest time at Suzuka yesterday, marginally behind team-mate and title rival Sebastian Vettel.
Button, it seemed, had learned well from his own experiences last year, where, after his early season domination, had collapsed into a run of tentative qualifying performances and scrappily salvaged points finishes, his mental strength and ability to control a championship had been questioned at every turn as the season progressed.
With a championship now in his back pocket, it was time to turn the same guns on the current title “uproven” title leader.
“Mark finds himself in a position where he is leading the world championship and has worked very hard for that, but it is a very stressful position to be in,” Button said. “And no disrespect to Mark, he is a very talented driver, but it is a position he has never found himself in before.
“We’ll see how he copes over the next few races,” Button added. “He has a very quick team-mate as well, who is trying to claw points back on him. So there will be a lot of action over the next few races.”
By late-afternoon, Button’s concerns for the mental well-being of his title rival looked wide of the mark as Webber and Vettel once again cruised ahead with an apparently unassailable advantage, fastest man Vettel claiming a seven-tenths of a second advantage over Renault’s Robert Kubica.
The closest championship rival to the Red Bulls was Fernando Alonso in fourth, nearly nine tenths adrift of Vettel, with Button sixth. Lewis Hamilton was a lowly 13th after suffering a morning crash that destroyed the front-left side of his car.
Despite the comfort zone, Webber is refusing to take for granted that the championship is slowly drifting his way.
“I’m not the favourite,” he said. “I think we’re all pretty even at the moment. It’s on a knife-edge, but I’m very, very relaxed. It’s another race for me, just go out there and do my best. I’ll leave nothing, leave no change on the table, and the points will look after themselves.”
That, though, is a luxury the Australian can ill-afford. With Fernando Alonso having claimed back-to-back victories in Singapore and Monza, Ferrari have proved they can take the fight to the Red Bulls on a variety of track types and while Webber has struggled in recent races, the momentum is firmly with Alonso.
Vettel, too, is hovering, the German lying a little shy of a victory behind his team-mate and seemingly on the brink of rediscovering the kind of form that saw him claim an effortless win in Malaysia before the wheels seemed to come off his charge following his controversial collision with his team-mate in Turkey.
“It is tight and it’s the next couple of races that will decide. It is a little bit similar to last year with the situation in the title hunt and the most important thing is to believe in yourself and trust in yourself,” said Vettel who cantered to victory here last year, but ultimately lost the title to Button in Brazil.
“You need to get the optimum out of yourself and, in order to do so, you should not forget why you are here, and enjoy it.”
As Webber was happy to acknowledge: “If it was a 15-race championship I’d be champion now, but I’m not. There’s four races to go and you need to lead the championship at the end, not now.”
