As a warm up for his gruelling Tasmania Challenge event, Webber is offering all levels of runners the chance to compete against him in a sponsored “Adventure Run” around the Hobart waterfront in Tasmania. The run will take place on December 4th in aid of the Mark Webber Foundation and Save the Tasmanian Devil foundation.

The Swisse Mark Webber Tasmania Challenge Adventure Run is being held three days prior to the main event; a tough five-day trek throughout Tasmania in which Mark broke his leg in 2008. The 6.5km “run” is primarily for amateur runners and walkers that would like a taster of the main trek, albeit in a more relaxed and fun environment.

As the main event may seem too much for many people, Mark and his fellow organisers decided to launch the accessible-for-all version of the competition. “This is a run designed for everyone and it’s a great opportunity for people to come to Tasmania, get involved and join in the fun,” said Webber in the events press release.

The Tasmanian Challenge began in 2003, however it was not put under Webber’s name until 2006. Both the five-day trek and the “adventure run” are charitable events aimed at supporting young Australians with life threatening illnesses as well as raising funds for environmental conservation.

If you would like to take this opportunity to compete against (or beat!) a multiple Grand Prix winner and one of the fittest men in F1 then all you have to do is sign up HERE . Here you will be able to access further information regarding the event. Good luck to all that enter the event and raise money for two very good causes.

“But our philosophy stays the same because this is sport and it must remain sport. We don’t manipulate things like Ferrari do.”

He got his Hollywood ending when Vettel went on to claim the title at the final round. Mateschitz wanted to see his drivers race and his attitude looked like a very noble, Corinthian spirit.

Those words look pretty hollow today, however after Red Bull instructed Mark Webber to “maintain the gap” behind his team mate Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps of yesterday’s British Grand Prix.

Webber had ignored instructions from his own engineer Ciaran Pilbeam and was shaping up for a move, but heeded the instructions after team boss Christian Horner intervened.

Afterwards he made his feelings clear in the press conference, where he said he was “not alright about it” as he felt that he should be entitled to fight for an extra place. As he pointed out, if anything had happened to the leader Fernando Alonso, he would have been fighting for the win.

Team orders are now legal in F1, so there is no official sanction here, but the team face serious accusations of hypocrisy while Mateschitz’s credo seems to have been ignored.

One one level it’s not a big deal; it was only for three points. But on another level it’s huge because Red Bull has given up the moral high ground and worse, has shown that its values were fine when Vettel was the one being given a chance, but that it doesn’t apply the other way around.

Was three points worth sacrificing all of that for?

With Vettel so far ahead in the points and unlikely to be caught this season, fans would argue that there was no need for Red Bull to intervene. Team boss Christian Horner said that they had done so because they feared the drivers might take each other off.

“I’m surprised at what he (Webber) did, so it’s something he and I will talk about in private,” Horner said.
“At the end of the day, the team is the biggest thing. No individual is bigger than the team. I can understand Mark’s frustration in that, but had it been the other way round, it would have been exactly the same.

“From a team point of view, there was a big haul of points on the table and it made absolutely no sense to risk seeing both cars in the fence and coming back on a tow truck.”

This rather underestimates Vettel’s intelligence. He might not have wanted to finish behind Webber for the first time this season, but the big picture is that he would still be leading his team mate and closest challenger in the championship by 201 points to 127 as opposed to 204 points to 124 we have today.

He’d hardly be likely to block or collide with Webber simply to alter those numbers. Vettel is a champion, he proved that last year and he’s proved it time and again this year with his increasingly mature and impressive performances. And he is more than capable of thinking like a champion.

He should be allowed to race, because the downside of acting as Red Bull have done here is that they diminish his achievement by making it look manipulated and have needlessly undermined a set of values that they worked hard and took huge risks last season to establish.

The irony of this is that both Horner and Webber had confirmed over the course of the weekend that they were going to renew their contract for 2012, despite the team receiving overtures from some of the most successful drivers on the grid. This is unlikely to derail that, but it has raised all sorts of questions.

Now he has a long rehabilitation in front of him.

Adams is a 10 times Australian speedway champion and he raced in the world championship, winning multiple Grands Prix before returning to Australia about 6 months ago. He’s essentially the Peter Brock of speedway in Australia!

Michael and Webber, both friends of Adams, along with the help of others, have managed to pull together some items to auction to raise money for his rehabilitation.

The items so far are:
Williams FW32 Rear Wing Mainplane (Signed)

Williams FW32 Front Wing Flap (Signed)

Red Bull RB4 Rear Wing Endplate (Signed by all F1 drivers)

Williams Technical Centre Tour

Belgian GP. Race Day Paddock Passes & Hospitality with Williams

DTM. VIP Weekend with HWA Mercedes

WTCC. VIP Weekend with Chevrolet

Various Driving Experiences, Germany

For more information go to Leigh Adams Appeal

Webber said that the front row lock out didn’t prove anything after the row over the throttle mapping in the run up to qualifying. At an emergency meeting of the Technical Working group it was decided that the cars would all run with 10% throttle open when the driver lifts off, Red Bull’s least favoured option.

“The last three years our team has turned up early and left late. What has happened in last few months is years of preparation to put ourselves in this position. It’s all about interpretation of rules. We’re still here, I don’t think the fans are 1% interested in the technical thing. Let’s just keep the rules simple and get on with the racing.”

Alonso, who survived a scare in Q1 when he went off track into some mud but managed to get out again, said it was Ferrari’s best qualifying of the season, “We are closer than ever. Today we are quicker and tomorrow we can put some pressure on them.”

All the cars rushed out at the start of qualifying because showers were forecast and after a few minutes light race started falling. Fernando Alonso went off track but managed to escape by driving through a muddy section.

Most drivers were carrying a few laps worth of fuel and turned a series of laps in Q1, rather than go out for a single lap blast.

Daniel Ricciardo was making his debut for Hispania this weekend but he wasn’t able to do enough in the brief period when the track was dry at the start. He qualified half a second slower than team mate Tonio Liuzzi.

The rain fell heavily with five minutes of Q1 remaining and Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen had by then done a great job to get ahead of both Toro Rossos, who were knocked out.

In Q2 there was a tough decision to be made on what tyre to run as there were some damp patches, especially around Copse corner, while the south side of the circuit was dry enough for slicks.

The rain stopped and the track began to ramp up very quickly and the lap times tumbled. It was all about timing, being on the soft tyre at the right time. Two men who used to excel in these conditions were eliminated, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.

Paul di Resta again beat his team mate, Adrian Sutil, the seventh time in nine races. He ended up in sixth place, his best grid slot of his F1 career to date. Pastor Maldonado got through into the top ten for the third time this season.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX, Silverstone, Qualifying
1. Mark Webber Red Bull 1m30.399s
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1m30.431s + 0.032
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m30.516s + 0.117
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m31.124s + 0.725
5. Jenson Button McLaren 1m31.989s + 1.590
6. Paul di Resta Force India 1m31.929s + 1.530
7. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m31.933s + 1.534
8. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1m32.128s + 1.729
9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m32.209s + 1.810
10. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1m32.376s + 1.977

11. Adrian Sutil Force India 1m32.617s + 0.977
12. Sergio Perez Sauber 1m32.624s + 0.984
13. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m32.656s + 1.016
14. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m32.734s + 1.094
15. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1m33.119s + 1.479
16. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m33.805s + 2.165
17. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1m34.821s + 3.181

18. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1m35.245s + 2.575
19. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1m35.749s + 3.079
20. Timo Glock Virgin 1m36.203s + 3.533
21. Jarno Trulli Lotus 1m36.456s + 3.786
22. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin 1m37.154s + 4.484
23. Tonio Liuzzi HRT 1m37.484s + 4.814
24. Daniel Ricciardo HRT 1m38.059s + 5.389

Webber: Not afraid to speak out (Darren Heath)

“As a competitor I do not feel at all comfortable going there to compete in an event when, despite reassurances to the contrary, it seems inevitable that it will cause more tension for the people of that country,” he said. I don’t understand why my sport wishes to place itself in a position to be a catalyst for that.”

Whether because he thinks the teams will push back on it, or because he thinks that further protests before October 30 will make the event untenable is not clear, but he is clear in his view that the race is unlikely to happen,

“Even though a decision has been made, I’ll be highly surprised if the Bahrain Grand Prix goes ahead this year,” he said.

There is a sense at large in F1 circles, that this decision is just a clumsy way to push any blame away from the FIA, FOM or teams in the cancellation of the event, which many feel is inevitable at some point nearer the time. By making this decision now, the sport can say that it made every effort to fulfil its side of the contract, so if the Bahrainis are forced to cancel before October 30th, F1 will not lose out financially.

If indeed this is the strategy, doing it this way incurs some collateral damage to the sport’s image and may trouble some of the sponsors.

Whatever the thinking behind it, Webber like many who work in the sport – and judging from the poll on this site yesterday, a majority of fans too – feels that the decision makes the sport look out of step with public sentiment.

“In my personal opinion, the sport should have taken a much firmer stance earlier this year rather than constantly delaying its decision in hope of being able to re-schedule it in 2011. It would have sent a very clear message about F1′s position on something as fundamental as human rights and how it deals with moral issues.

“It’s obvious that the parties involved have struggled to reach a decision but sadly I feel that they still haven’t made the right one. Like it or not, F1 and sport in general isn’t above having a social responsibility and conscience. I hope F1 is able to return to Bahrain eventually but now isn’t the right time.”

One is a video blog, the second that Rosberg has done from the back seat of his Mercedes limo as he speeds toward the private aviation terminal at the airport, no doubt.

It’s good to get a driver to share his thoughts immediately after the race, like this. Rosberg reflects on Mercedes pace in the race and his own performance. He lost the start to his team mate Michael Schumacher and couldn’t get back in front.

The other was sent to me by an Aussie colleague and is a You Tube upload of an advert for Canberra milk in which Mark Webber sings.

It’s one of those things that shows Webber’s heart is in the right place, but he looks (and sounds) a little ill at ease. Judge for yourselves.

However Vettel had a problem with his KERS in qualifying and was forced to run without using it, giving up around 4/10ths of a second. Webber’s margin over him was exactly 2/10ths.

Fernando Alonso managed to split the McLarens for fourth fastest time, despite being told by the FIA that Ferrari was not allowed to use the controversial new rear wing.

There was just 3/100ths of a second separating Hamilton in 3rd, Alonso 4th and Button 5th. It will be the first occasion this season on which Alonso doesn’t start in fifth place.

Amazingly the top five drivers are in exactly the same grid slots as they were for last season’s race. Vitaly Petrov did a strong job to qualify the Renault in 6th place and Pastor Maldonado gave Williams a smile with 9th place, his first time in the top ten.

Of all the races this season so far, this was the one which saw qualifying most affected by strategic thinking on tyre choice. Both Force India cars deliberately threw Q2 by running the hard tyres to give themselves more options for the race. Paul Di Resta is the second fastest car in the speed trap so overtaking won’t be a problem.

Michael Schumacher, whose KERS wasn’t working properly, went out on hard tyres in Q3, didn’t set a lap, but it encouraged the other top ten runners to go out and use up a set of soft tyres.

The problem with the hard tyres being so much slower than the softs certainly created some issues for some of the front runners, with Ferrari and Mercedes obliged to burn up a set of soft tyres to get through. In the end only Heikki Kovalainen of the new teams managed to make it through into Q2, a great reward for all the hard work the Lotus team. His time was faster than Felipe Massa’s hard tyre time, but Alonso and the two Mercedes drivers were not threatened by Kovalainen. Despite Nick Heidfeld looking unlikely to do a lap, due to damage from a fire on the morning, they clearly felt insecure and have put themselves on the back foot for the race with less new soft tyres than their rivals.

Also surprising was the gap between Mercedes and McLaren on hard tyres, which was over a second.

Along with Heidfeld who didn’t manage to get out, Rubens Barrichello was knocked out too, only able to do five laps due to a gearbox problem,
“The car is not competitive and it’s never running so it’s a bit of a mess right now,” said a very disgruntled Barrichello.

That was not the evidence of his team mate’s performance; Pastor Maldonado getting through into the top ten shootout in the updated Williams. He was the standout performer from the Q2 session and he ended up in 9th place, Williams’ best qualifying of the season.

In the second part of qualifying when they all used the soft tyre, Force India went for the hard tyre, essentially giving up on qualifying to focus on the race. They haven’t had the best of times this weekend, with correlation issues between what they thought their updates would give them and what they actually have given.

In Q3 we saw more tactical thinking, Michael Schumacher opted to run the hard tyres, but didn’t complete the lap, so he has the option to start on either tomorrow.

Webber seemed underwhelmed by pole position, competitor that he is, he was unsatisfied that his success had come about because of reliability issues for his team mate.

Vettel seemed relaxed and said that he felt the KERS would work in the race.

“Yes we are working hard on the KERS, but it’s not right to say that I didn’t have KERS and so that is why Mark is on pole, ” said Vettel “Mark did a better job today. It seems to be a bit of an endless story, the KERS, but the guys are pushing hard. We can’t speak of big disappointment.”

Although Red Bull are on a different planet in qualifying, it is always closer in the race, because they cannot use the DRS wing in the corners. It should be a fierce race tomorrow between the four leading cars with strategy likely to be the key.

The drivers who have taken a different tactic, like Schumacher or who qualified out of position, like Heidfeld who can now use three new sets of softs in a four stop strategy, will also be worth watching.

SPANISH GRAND PRIX, Barcelona, Qualifying
1. Mark Webber Red Bull 1m20.981s
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1m21.181s + 0.200
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1m21.961s + 0.980
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m21.964s + 0.983
5. Jenson Button McLaren 1m21.996s + 1.015
6. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m22.471s + 1.490
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m22.599s + 1.618
8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m22.888s + 1.907
9. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m22.952s + 1.971
10. Michael Schumacher Mercedes

11. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1m23.231s + 1.691
12. Sergio Perez Sauber 1m23.367s + 1.827
13. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1m23.694s + 2.154
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1m23.702s + 2.162
15. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1m25.403s + 3.863
16. Paul di Resta Force India 1m26.126s + 4.586
17. Adrian Sutil Force India 1m26.571s + 5.031

18. Jarno Trulli Lotus 1m26.521s + 3.561
19. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1m26.910s + 3.950
20. Timo Glock Virgin 1m27.315s + 4.355
21. Tonio Liuzzi HRT 1m27.809s + 4.849
22. Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1m27.908s + 4.948
23. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin 1m28.556s + 5.596
24. Nick Heidfeld Renault No time

Add in the total lack of crowd or any kind of buzz around the event and F1 seems to be in a sterile bubble this weekend, going about its business behind closed doors.

But it still has to put on a show and luckily there is a lot going on in the sport at the moment, much to talk about. And on Sunday the TV cameras will transmit what is likely to be another exciting and unpredictable race to the waiting world in the 170+ countries in which F1 is followed.

There is talk that this might be the last race at this circuit; there is no local interest and voices here have said that there’s no appetite to pay to keep it here. We’ll see. I lost count of how many times I attended the last GP at Magny Cours, before the actual last race. For all its weaknesses in terms of atmosphere and failure to create a motorsport infrastructure here, this is a great race track and the drivers all said that they would really miss it if it fell off the calendar.

Felipe Massa is chief among them; he has won three times here and the little Brazilian has a spring back in his step, being back on favoured ground with some momentum back in his career. He had to fend off questions about a rumoured move to Red Bull, with Nico Rosberg joining Ferrari, but even that didn’t wipe the smile off his face.

Lewis Hamilton played a straight bat, talking down expectations for the weekend, after his momentous win in China three weeks ago. “I don’t have particularly high hopes. We don’t expect much here,” he said, disingenuously, before adding that he only won in China because he outdrove Vettel and McLaren outfoxed Red Bull on strategy.

Fernando Alonso was also not promising miracles from the updated Ferrari package, which features new front and rear wings. The team’s weak start to the season has been caused by correlation problems in the wind tunnel after it was scaled up from 50% to 60% models. Alonso said that he believes that the team has got to the bottom of it and has done some excellent work in the last three weeks. But he doesn’t expect the new parts to project him into a battle with the Red Bulls just yet.

“It’s a couple of tenths, not a revolution,” he said. “We won’t change the car completely in one race. I expect a slow reaction, step by step. But we are losing points and we need a reaction as soon as possible.”

I asked him specifically about his starts, which have been bad this year. Looking at the start analysis of positions at the end of sector 1 on the opening laps, he has lost seven places in three races, while Massa has gained five. He said that it was a combination of factors, some clutch control problems and mistakes on his part and acknowledged that these things needed working on. It’s been hard enough for Alonso with the car he has, but the poor starts compound the problem. *

Meanwhile Mark Webber has gone and used the “R” word, which is always a genie out of a bottle with the media.

There were some quotes from him before the weekend about his options for next season and the first thing he said when he sat down today was that he wouldn’t decide on next year until August. That invited the media to ask him lots of questions about next year and he said that there are three options,
“Either I stay here, or I stop, or I go somewhere else… which is unlikely, ” he added.

Last season his contract renewal with Red Bull was famously announced during the kiss-and-make-up moment after he and Vettel collided here. There’s no chance of a repeat this year, as Webber has made it clear that he wants to consider offers from outside and “keep things open” as he puts it.

The key question as far as him moving on is concerned is whether other teams feel he has “peaked” as a driver, does he still have capacity for fresh exploits, they will ask themselves. It’s been a long career, mostly flatlining with the odd blip at Jaguar and Williams, until exploding into life at Red Bull in the last two years.

As he showed again in China, he’s still a formidable racer and he’s always been good at judging the grip level just right in qualifying. But is there such a thing as a move away from Red Bull for the man who turns 35 this summer?

Once the “R” word – Retirement – starts getting used, it follows a driver round like a wasp, constantly reappearing until finally it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. Rosberg’s management maintains a market for his services, making him always look in demand. By “keeping things open” Webber is doing the same.

Webber’s show in China made many teams rethink their strategies for using the Pirelli tyres in qualifying with an eye on the race. One senior engineer told me that all the fast teams are thinking about doing Q3 on hard tyres, so sacrificing grid position in order to have extra new sets of tyres for the race and also getting the hard tyre out of the way first.

Vettel said that he won’t be doing that, “I still think that starting from pole position is where you want to be. Mark had a good race, but there’s a lot of risk involved. Now people are panicking a bit and saying they have to save tyres, but if your target is to win, you would start from the front.”

Sporting a new short hair cut, he again seemed slightly edgy. He was also asked what was his memory of last year’s race.

“A blank” he said, with that sardonic smile on his lips.

* For my full Strategy Briefing, analysing all the considerations the teams will make about the best way to do qualifying and the race, race start analysis and much more – with input from F1 team engineers – go to Strategy Briefing and click on the Istanbul Track in the graphic

The Red Bull driver headed Jenson Button by 0.005s in the second session, with Lewis Hamilton third and Sebastian Vettel fourth as Red Bull had the KERS on its car working today. The rest of the field was over a second behind, with Ferrari admitting that they are a little off the pace again.

Still out front (Photo: Red Bull)

The afternoon session was 15 degrees hotter than the morning session as track temperatures headed towards 50 degrees, although they dropped as the 90 minute session went on.

Pirelli tested out a more durable experimental compound during practice, something more approaching the old Bridgestones and possible conservative option for certain potential situations in future.

But most drivers were keen to spend time evaluating the soft tyre over long runs, to see how far it might go in the race. The Pirelli tyres shred, throwing off chunks of rubber and at the end of the session there was a substantial amount of “marbles” off line, which will discourage overtaking on race day.

The degradation on the tyres was very large; the difference between the first lap and later laps of a run was as much as eight seconds, even for the front runners, indicating that predictions of three of four pit stops for Sunday may prove accurate. With the Pirellis it is the rear tyres which go first. The soft tyre has a performance edge of around a second over the hard tyre, which makes it the tyre of choice for the race as well as qualifying, but the degradation is steep and getting them to last more than ten laps will be a challenge for many. This complicates the picture and getting the right strategy for the race will be tricky. Once again the cars which are gentlest on their tyres will be in the best shape.

Renault’s drivers had a frustrating day after a suspension problem in the morning led to both of them missing the opening part of the second session, “We quickly established that the two failed items had come from the same material batch and that nothing from this batch had run prior to today,” said technical director James Allison. Once satisfied with the reasons, the team sent the drivers out for the half way through the second session and both managed to get 16 laps in.

Pastor Maldonado had a bizarre incident, losing the rear end of the car after touching grass on the way into the pit lane, the car spun and hit the barrier. Tonio Liuzzi stopped out on track in the revised Hispania with the new front wing, after bottoming out heavily on a kerb, which stopped the engine.

Heikki Kovalainen also suffered today; it was his turn to give up his car to reserve driver Davide Valsecchi in the morning and then in the afternoon he had a differential failure after just one run which sidelined him for the day. Jerome d’Ambrosio had a suspension faliure in the morning which put him out for the afternoon.

MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX, Friday Free Practice 2
1. Mark Webber Red Bull 1m36.876s 24 laps
2. Jenson Button McLaren 1m36.881s + 0.005 30 laps
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1m37.010s + 0.134 23 laps
4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1m37.090s + 0.214 30 laps
5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.088s + 1.212 26 laps
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m38.089s + 1.213 31 laps
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.565s + 1.689 25 laps
8. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m38.570s + 1.694 16 laps
9. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m38.583s + 1.707 27 laps
10. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1m38.846s + 1.970 31 laps
11. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m38.968s + 2.092 25 laps
12. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1m39.187s + 2.311 30 laps
13. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m39.267s + 2.391 17 laps
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1m39.398s + 2.522 29 laps
15. Sergio Perez Sauber 1m39.603s + 2.727 34 laps
16. Paul di Resta Force India 1m39.625s + 2.749 31 laps
17. Adrian Sutil Force India 1m39.809s + 2.933 28 laps
18. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1m40.115s + 3.239 31 laps
19. Timo Glock Virgin 1m40.866s + 3.990 24 laps
20. Jarno Trulli Lotus 1m41.890s + 5.014 19 laps
21. Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1m43.197s + 6.321 15 laps
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT 1m43.991s + 7.115 14 laps
23. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1m44.886s + 8.010 4 laps

The event will take place on December 7-11.

Webber: Extreme sports devotee (Darren Heath)

The five day event challenges competitors to kayak, trail, trek, mountain bike and climb in the wilds of Tasmania. It is a fundraiser for various Australian charities and environmental projects.

The event is aimed at elite adventure athletes as well as amateurs and even celebrities. As for the question of whether Webber plans to compete himself, after a couple of off track injuries in recent seasons, he is cagey, “Once the season is over, I will be able to decide whether or not to compete,” he said.