Mark Webber, disqualified, will start last

Another day to forget for Mark Webber. The Australian has just been downgraded Chinese Grand Prix qualifying. With this sanction, he will finally have to start from the last position on the starting grid on Sunday. In full effort during Q2, the veteran of the field was forced to park his RB9 in a loophole at the hairpin located at the very end of the long straight of the Shanghai circuit, the team having announced to him that? he did not have enough fuel to return to his stand. Unable to defend his chances, Mark Webber found himself expelled from the top 10 and would have to settle for 14th place.

Except that by being unable to return to her box by her own means, the Red Bull found itself in violation. Worse, only 150 mL of gasoline was found in the tank of the car, while the technical regulations require that there always be at least one 1L so that the marshals can, at any time during the weekend, come and extract a sample in order to check it. “The team admitted they didn’t put enough gas in the car”, explains a press release from the race commissioners sent after the session. “As specified in the delegated technical report, only 150 mL of gasoline was loaded, which was insufficient to provide the liter of sample and allow the car to return to the pits under its own power. »

To explain this error, Christian Horner, the director of Red Bull F1 team, cited the malfunction of the fuel dispenser, which would have “delivered three kg of gasoline less than expected”. " It's frustrating ", he added. " Disappointing ", judged Mark Webber for his part. “I felt good and we had a good strategy? »