Horner: Webber woes down to cold tyres

Horner dismissed suggestions that the team should have given the Australian a set of softer option Pirellis to try and save his session - after his first attempt on the primes proved not enough to keep him in - insisting that Webber's pace through the weekend had shown he could hit the target on the harder rubber.

"We thought there would be enough performance there to do it on the prime," Horner explained to the BBC. "Everything that we have seen previously, and from this morning, suggested that he should be able to do it on the first lap on the prime.

"We shouldn't needed to have run the prime, it's very easy with 20/20 hindsight to say that was a mistake and we should have gone on the option.

"It was the team's call because it looked like another set of primes should have been more than enough given the pace that we saw this morning even with Mark's short amount of running - it should have been enough to comfortably make it through.

"But with the tyres not being up to temperature it has obviously compromised him. He has just had rotten luck this weekend, but I am sure that he can race very well from there."

Webber's day began badly after his morning practice session was compromised by a fault in the wiring loom which affected the Red Bull's KERS. It's unclear whether the system was available to the Australian in qualifying.

"It's been a rotten day for Mark today," added Horner. "This morning he had an electrical issue and then a massive effort from the entire crew, including the mechanics from Sebastian [Vettel's] car to get the car ready for qualifying.

"His first run wasn't great so we went to run again on the prime and unfortunately those tyres weren't quite up to temperature for his optimum first lap. He missed out so it's just one of those things.

"It's disappointing for Mark and the team that we don't have both cars up where we want them to be."

Webber's views on qualifying were fairly succinct: "Very frustrating day. Did one lap in P3, and tried to get into things in Q1, but we got caught out on the first set [of tyres] and were not quick enough at end of day. There were a few plates spinning in background, and we paid the ultimate price today for that.

"I thought we had enough to get through. Turns out the second set of primes... that is the way it goes."