Webber believes he could have qualified better had he followed Alonso's strategy

Alonso took pole ahead of Webber's Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

"We could have maybe, like Fernando, stopped but should have, would have, could have doesn't count," said Webber. "We're third now."

Webber admitted that his tyres were too worn to perform when the track was at its fastest in the closing moments.

"It was a very intense, tricky session for drivers and engineers with decisions," said Webber.

"It was a challenge for us. In Q3, definitely to arrive on the straights in seventh gear was sometimes not possible, to use the kerbs wasn't possible and there was extremely heavy aquaplaning. When the car has wheelspin at 280km/h, it certainly gets your attention.

"So we had to juggle a few balls. We arrived at the end of the lap in reasonable shape. It was becoming obvious that that times were going to be done at the end but our tyres weren't in the best shape at the end."

The Australian will be put down to eighth on the grid as a penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change on his Red Bull on Saturday morning.

"We wanted to be on the front row but eighth with the penalty is OK and we can race from there," Webber said. "We're going to aim to go forward. It's not the best position to start from, it's not ideal, but we have to aim to come forward and let's see how the race goes.

"I did a better job than the other guys who got a five-place penalty."