Mark Webber

The US GP brought more frustration for Mark Webber as yet again his Jaguar let him down, for after a strong run he retired with an oil fire taking hold at the back of the car. What made it even worse was that in this race of high attrition the Aussie had shown respectable speed and was on course for sixth. Alas, the team ended the day still ninth place in the constructors' table, now just two points clear of Minardi.

After the race Mark was more than a little despondent. No one doubts his commitment to the Jaguar cause, but the ongoing reliability problems continue to test his patience. In Canada the car didn't let him down as such, but he was eventually forced to retire with damage caused by an assault from Christian Klien at the first corner.

That was an expensive piece of team work, for the multiple exclusions in Montreal meant that both the North American races offered bags of rare points to just about anyone who was still going. Jaguar hasn't taken advantage. The question of whether the mid-season championship positions will allow Webber to make an uncontested escape to Williams has become academic.

Mark qualified a strong 10th at Indianapolis, and while it appeared that the team had been a little optimistic on fuel, the position was apparently achieved on a genuinely competitive strategy.

"It was very realistic," Mark insists. "I would have said there would have not been many people stopping later than us. We were similar to BAR, probably. We couldn't believe our time. In fact we couldn't believe how slow everyone else was!"

With Juan Pablo Montoya out of the picture, Mark was ninth at the start. He lost a spot to David Coulthard, but felt that he was faster than the McLaren man.

"I was going held up a lot by David," says Mark. "When Ralf crashed we were close, because I was quicker than him at the time. I saw the yellow flags, and we both started to brake. It just happened so quickly. David braked and went right, I braked and, what he had avoided, there it was - a big piece of blue bodywork."

Webber ran over the debris and then swerved to the inside to avoid the stricken Williams. Fortunately for him Coulthard made room, so everyone got through unscathed. At the end of the lap most of the leading contenders came storming into the pits, but knowing that he had a relatively heavy fuel load aboard, Mark opted to stay out.

"Obviously all the people that were heavy stayed out, because they didn't need to stop. Everyone who was short [fuelled] stopped. There was some discussion, only because of how long the safety car stayed out for. We didn't know how long it would take Ralf to get out of the car, stuff like that. If it was three or four laps, it was a no brainer for us to stay out. If it went to seven or eight laps, it was a different ball game."

Damage to the car was a major concern, and Mark did his best to give his pit crew a chance to survey the R5 as he passed by the pits, almost bringing the thing to a stop. Montoya was immediately behind, and if you wondered, that's why the on-board camera showed the Colombian getting a little agitated as they passed the crash scene...

"Every time I came round I was stopping in front of my boys so they could check my car, basically, and then pulling back in again. I knew Juan was getting pissed off! All the guys were hanging over the fence and I was trying to get the car in the right position so they could check my damage."

As the safety car period dragged on the team cut its losses and made the decision to bring Mark in after all, and take advantage of a 'free' stop. It's something that others, notably BAR, should have done.

"One of the big reasons we came in was because the car was severely damaged by the debris. I lost one complete bargeboard, the other bargeboard was disconnected, and the rear floor had a gouge in it. They changed the nose and had a good look around. The guys said my left rear tyre was slashed."

Mark rejoined at the back of the queue, and on the restart began to make progress. He should have finished sixth, ahead of both McLarens. However, his day ended on lap 60 with oil spewing from the rear. He parked the car on the outside of the first corner, leaving a trail that made life a little tricky for some of those following.

"I went out heavy. It was going bloody well, and we couldn't believe it. For the last few laps I was getting oil on the left rear tyre, and then finally it broke. I was trying to get straight to a marshals' point. I wanted to stop on the inside, and then I thought let's get this thing totally out of the way."

A rare points-scoring opportunity had gone.

"Exactly," he rues. "But same again, reliability. Say no more. We all break our balls, all the mechanics... And I was really happy with how I drove, considering Ralf's bodywork did do a lot of damage to the car.

"I was just hanging in there to see what we could do, really. We had the McLarens covered, no problem. You don't know, if it had stayed green all through the first stops, how good our pace really was. I was all over DC. How much fuel did he have? I don't know."

Three points for Webber in nine races isn't much to shout about, and since they come from a seventh and an eighth, and Klien has failed to score at all, under traditional scoring Jaguar's performance would look even worse. The only comfort is that Jordan and Minardi would also still be on zero...

Now it's on to Magny-Cours, where last year Mark qualified ninth and finished sixth. With its combination of fast corners and hairpins the track bears some resemblance to Sepang, so perhaps it will favour the green car.

"Yeah, it should be good for us. It's one of our stronger tracks, I would hope. We'll go and do our best."