Formula 1

Acclaimed Shanghai drive 'not rewarding' - Webber

By GMM

Edited: May 10, 2011, 7:04 PM

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Mark Webber has admitted that scything from the back of the grid through the Shanghai field for a podium finish was "not very rewarding".

Commentators hailed the Australian's drive in China three weeks ago as perhaps the best of his career, but the 34-year-old doesn't agree.

Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: xpb.cc

He said many of his overtaking moves were artificially boosted by the 'DRS' adjustable rear wing as well as the cache of fresh tyres he had been able to preserve by bowing out of Q1.

"A lot more people probably enjoyed my China drive than I did, to be honest," he said after finishing second in Turkey on Sunday.

"When you come up against drivers like Fernando and Jenson and Felipe and Nico, these guys, and you catch them at 2.5 seconds a lap, it's nice but it's not very rewarding in terms of how you pass them.

"These guys have absolutely nothing to fight back with, so it was a podium which of course I took," he said.

Asked more generally how he feels about F1's exciting new formula in 2011, Webber added: "It's best I stop there."

Jean Todt was in Turkey on Sunday and he said 2011 has been very exciting so far, agreeing that Webber's Shanghai drive was a perfect example.

But as for the DRS overtaking wing, the FIA president admitted: "I think it's too artificial."

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