Mark Webber's top 10 grands prix

Mark Webber walked away from Formula 1 with his head held high after a 12-season grand prix career came to a close with second place in last month's Brazilian Grand Prix.

While the Australian failed to win the world championship, he did claim some great victories and produced some outstanding drives during his career. Here are the best of them.

10 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2002

While not one of his greatest 10 drives in terms of pure quality, the significance of Webber's fifth place on his F1 debut makes it impossible to ignore.

A Minardi had not scored a point since the 1999 European GP, so Webber's haul of two was unexpected. Circumstances were very much on his side, with eight cars eliminated on the first lap, both Arrows black-flagged and a further four drivers retiring.

Pedro de la Rosa's Jaguar was five laps down after suffering an engine problem, while the second Minardi was driven by Alex Yoong, not as hopeless a driver as F1 remembers him as his A1GP victories prove, but thrown in at the top level in difficult circumstances with inadequate preparation.

That effectively meant Webber was guaranteed a point, and when Mika Salo spun his Toyota trying to chase down the Australian, that one point became two.

On a three-race deal, his prospects of a long-term future in F1 looked bleak. That fifth place transformed the course of Webber's career.

9 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX 2010

Webber lined up second for the race behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel, but after being relegated to third by Fernando Alonso at the start, his victory hopes seemed slim.

While Vettel checked out at the front, Webber chased Alonso and the German appeared to have the race in his pocket when the safety car was deployed to clear Vitantonio Liuzzi's front wing from the track.

Vettel dived into the pits, as did most, although Webber opted to stay out. When the race restarted, Vettel was running second but, in an attempt to give Webber a chunk of time over third-placed Alonso, making his job of building a lead to pit and return second ahead of the Ferrari driver, he dropped too far behind the safety car. This earned him a drive-through penalty.

The race was about Webber versus Alonso. Could the Australian build up enough of an advantage?

After 42 laps, Webber had enough of a margin - over 23 seconds - to pit and rejoin ahead of Alonso. But he refused to back off and in the final reckoning, ended up 17 seconds clear.

While the Red Bull was the car of choice that day, it was still an impressive and opportunistic drive.

8 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2010

During the tense 2010 world championship run-in, Vettel and Webber went at it hard. At Suzuka, they had probably their closest battle, as the pair ran nose-to-tail throughout the race.

While Webber ended up defeated, finishing a close second, his pace in both qualifying and the race had been relentlessly strong. He certainly regards it as one of his best ones and hints that he felt he could have won but for the strategy calls made by the team.

"That was tooth and nail," he says. "I finished second but it was a very, very strong grand prix. He wasn't hanging round and I finished seven-tenths behind him. It was a very strong race - amongst quite a few radio calls here and there, I was very happy with that race from my side."

7 MONACO GRAND PRIX 2006

Webber was ideally-suited to the sprint-style race format of F1's refuelling era and was always spectacularly fast on the streets of Monaco.

He proved that by putting his Williams on the front row. But what was more remarkable was that he would have been a surefire podium finisher, and had the cards fallen for him he might just have won, but for an exhaust problem that put him out.

As he said after the race, "we were on qualifying pace for an hour."

6 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2007

Webber's grand prix career has come to be defined by his relationship with Vettel. What happened in sodden conditions at Fuji in 2007 set the tone for their rocky partnership.

Vettel was in only his sixth grand prix, yet had climbed to third place driving for Toro Rosso. Under the safety car, only leader Lewis Hamilton and Webber were running ahead of him.

At this point in the race, you would not have been offered lucrative odds on Webber winning. He was at ease in the conditions and Hamilton knew full well that title rival Fernando Alonso had just crashed out. Were the rapid Webber to attack, he would have to cede.

Then Vettel clattered into Webber under the safety car, putting the Australian out of the race.

"We were starting to put some pressure on Lewis," recalls Webber. "The standard of driving in that race was quite high with very, very testing conditions. It's not often you see Fernando drop it and he got caught out with the aquaplaning. For Seb, myself and Lewis, it was a very tough grand prix. Even tougher for me, I wasn't feeling well and had food poisoning!

"I was strong in certain parts of the lap with Lewis, but he knew he had to get good points with Fernando out. It was all to play for and we were certainly quick enough to put a lot of heat on him towards the flag.

"Seb made a small error of judgement. Lewis is also not completely innocent in all that because he was a long way behind the safety car..."

5 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2006

In 12 attempts at his home grand prix, Mark Webber never managed to finish in the top three. Only after his fifth place on debut in 2002, when he was invited onto the podium to celebrate with the home fans, did he set foot near the rostrum.

The 2006 Williams was far from the best car he raced at Albert Park, but it was the car that would have allowed him to bag that coveted podium finish had the gearbox lasted.

Running long in the first stint, he moved to top spot as the others pitted, but before his own stop for fuel the gearbox gave out after he'd completed just 22 laps.

Victory was unlikely, although not completely impossible, and Webber himself has no doubt that he would have made the podium.

4 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX 2003

Webber extracted some astonishing qualifying performances out of mediocre machinery during his time at the Jaguar team. Driving a car that worked its rubber hard (as Webber has put it, "absolutely murdering its tyres"), too hard for race conditions, he was often able to overachieve dramatically in qualifying, only to be powerless to avoid sliding down the order come the race.

But after qualifying third at the Hungaroring, he was able to run second in his first stint, in doing so allowing Alonso to build up a lead that was decisive in the Spaniard securing his first win.

He held on to finish sixth, just over 70 seconds down. Inevitably, the critics claimed this was evidence of a good one-lap driver incapable of sustaining his form. What it really represented was a driver absolutely maximising limited machinery over a single lap then battling hard to keep it somewhere near the front over longer runs.

3 BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2012

Webber looked to be destined for second place behind Alonso, who had taken pole position in the wet. But the Ferrari driver's struggle on the softer option tyre, which Webber had used earlier in the race, meant that it boiled down to a straight shoot-out in the final stint.

Once both had made their final pitstops, Alonso's advantage was four seconds. But on the 45th lap, Webber was right with the Ferrari driver. Three laps later, he passed Alonso around the outside with the help of the DRS into Brooklands to take the lead.

He led only five laps, but they were the ones that counted and Webber had beaten a great rival and friend in a straight, wheel-to-wheel fight.

2 MONACO GRAND PRIX 2010

Webber had starred at Monaco before, but the first of his two victories on the streets of the Principality was absolutely imperious.

He took pole position by three-tenths from Robert Kubica, who was on inspired form in the Renault, and controlled the race to perfection.

With team-mate Vettel behind him, Webber had to survive several safety-car restarts to preserve his lead, in the process earning the points he needed to take the lead in the drivers' championship.

1 GERMAN GRAND PRIX 2009

Everything was set up perfectly for Webber to claim his first victory in his 132nd start. He had his maiden pole position at the Nurburgring and despite losing the lead at the start to Rubens Barrichello's Brawn, he had the pace to win easily.

But after making a better start, Barrichello pulled ahead. Webber moved over on the Brazilian, slapping him in the sidepod and earning a drive-through penalty.

This left him down in eighth place, but the Australian was not to be denied. He was consistently quick and, despite not making any of his passing moves on track, climbed to the lead and beat Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel by 10 seconds.

What was most remarkable was the fortitude Webber showed after the penalty. Others would have simply accepted it wasn't their day, but after seven-and-a-half winless years, the Australian was inspired and untouchable.