Mark Webber can consider himself unlucky after a superb drive failed to reward him with some well-deserved championship points in today's 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
_{source: markwebber.com}


PHOTOS

At one stage of the race - which was punctuated by a series of Safety Car caution periods and overshadowed by a violent crash involving Robert Kubica - Webber was in second place. However, he was ultimately to finish ninth. The race was won by rookie Lewis Hamilton from Nick Heidfeld and Alex Wurz.

Webber was let down by poor start from sixth position and was shuffled back in the pack to ninth position. "I went nowhere - it was a shit start. We have got to have a look at the controls as our last two starts have been poor or we're not doing our homework in practice maybe," said a disappointed Webber.

Webber did well to try and recover the situation and piled the pressure on Kubica. "I had to try and fight back through the field which isn't easy here in terms of trying to get a run on people. I had a big fight with Robert down to turn one but braked a fraction late and couldn't stop for turn 2."

Webber rejoined in 14th position and had to start his battle charge all over again. "I got past DC and Rubens [Barrichello] and managed to catch up to [Tonio] Liuzzi. Unfortunately if you try and do anything even a little bit off-line here, it's all but impossible because there are so many marbles."

Webber stayed behind Liuzzi for the remainder of his first stint before making his first pit stop on lap 22. A safety car period almost immediately afterwards when Scott Speed crashed worked in Webber's favour as those ahead of him pitted when the pit lane opened. The race had only gone back to green for a lap before Kubica crashed heavily. The Safety Car was deployed again immediately as the medical team worked to release Kubica from his wreck.  At this early stage it is understood that Kubica suffered a broken leg.

The race went live again on lap 33 and with more pit stops the order of the day, Webber was up into sixth place behind Ralf Schumacher.  Webber passed the German two laps later and when Nico Rosberg spun in unison with Jarno Trulli, Webber was third and pulling away from Felipe Massa in the Ferrari.



When Heidfeld pitted, Webber moved into second place and was running in clear air when the Safety Car was deployed again, this time to clear debris from the track. Surprisingly Webber stayed out on track and didn't pit for his second stop until the race resumed on lap 54.

This dropped him to 11th position before yet another Safety Car period. Webber made up two places when Trulli and Barrichello pitted but the last 10 laps to the chequered flag failed to yield anything further for Webber. "The first pit stop worked well for us and I moved up through the field. The team told me to do the business between laps 30 and 52 so I put in some quali laps and it was going pretty well for us at that point.


Then the next Safety Car period coincided with the second round of pit stops, and it meant the last part of the race was like a game of Russian Roulette - some slow boys at the front and quick ones further back. It was just the way the race ended up."