Thursday July 16, 2009
Ecstatic Webber kept awake by congratulatory messages
LONDON: Red Bull’s Mark Webber made a basic mistake when he returned home from Germany as a first-time Formula One winner. He failed to turn off his mobile phone.
“I think I made a bit of a schoolboy error,” the Australian confessed when asked about his Sunday night homecoming celebrations following his German Grand Prix victory.
“We got back to the UK late on Sunday night and the downside was that Australia was just waking up,” he told the Red Bull website
www.redbullracing.com.
“I was flat out from nine in the evening until two in the morning as so many people were getting in touch to congratulate me. I couldn’t bring myself to switch my phone off, so there wasn’t much sleep, that’s for sure.”
Webber’s first victory came after 130 starts, the most made by any driver before winning in the 60-year history of the championship, and made him only the third Australian to win a Grand Prix after Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.
Webber received around 90 texts after Saturday’s qualifying and another 160 after the race. There was also an email from triple champion Brabham and son David.
“The Brabham family has always been fantastic towards me,“ he said. “I remember 15 years ago, Jack telling me that he had always found it great to come over and beat those Europeans, even if he didn’t put quite as diplomatically as that.
“Certainly a small part of my victory is down to Jack, because my father was a great admirer of his and probably I wouldn’t have been racing cars without Jack lighting that little fire in the Webber family.”
On Monday Webber attended a debrief at the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes before going to a charity dinner with Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting and players.
“As an intro for me, they played the recording of my car-to-pit radio as I crossed the line,” he said of the factory visit.
“I didn’t realise how long I was shouting for. The response was incredible. — Reuters
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