Q & A with Mark Webber

Mark Webber: "A bit of luck and a bit of skill, I guess. You need those on days like this. It's very easy to run out of talent and hit the wall. Early on, the aquaplaning was hard on intermediates. It would have been nice to run longer before we had to switch to dries, but we were out of fuel. We had to put the dries on two or three laps too early. We had to do it, but it was very risky in the third and last sectors."

Q. How difficult was that to manage?

MW: "It had to be six tenths, sometimes five tenths. In those kind of races, you can never be 10-tenths. You always need to leave a margin."

Q. First race in the wet without traction control, were the concerns justified?

MW: "It shows at this level what F1 drivers are capable of. It was a real test for the whole grid today - it was very tricky at times - and it shows when we're tested to the limit we can deliver.

"There was a few little mistakes, David (Coulthard) got caught out by a bad downshift when the engine didn't respond correctly, but it's very easy to lose the car. At Monaco the spray is low and the rivers are low. We get worried when there's more aquaplaning, and the spray is worse when the speed is higher."

Q. Was it fun?

MW: "It was fun when the track started to dry out a little bit. On the intermediates, when the track dried, you're braking on dry track into the chicane but there's wet patches on the exit, so you can get wheelspin. That was fun!"

Q. You were on dries when you got caught up by other guys on inters?

MW: "Yeah, I couldn't do anything to get away from them. Obviously Sutil drove a very good race, and that crossover period was when he and Kimi got ahead of me, and they didn't get caught up in all that shit with the other guys. I think some of those guys were fighting for position, some were lapped, so it was a bit messy. The traffic was bad, especially Jarno. I had him for a lap and half, and you lose so much time, but the main thing is I got five points for the team."

Q. How did you know when to push as it was drying?

MW: "You have to put your trust in the dry line. You can push very hard, but it's a dangerous game if you get out of it. You can rip two corners, the exhaust and radiator off the car! Even on the inters, you had to stay in the dry because the grooves were getting worn.

"We were taking a totally different line through Tabac and the Swimming Pool, we've never used it before, because that was where the dry line was. It was odd. In Rascasse, the track was drying, but there were small marbles from the intermediates, which I've never seen before. So we got marbles on a wet track with dry tyres."

Q. What was the indicator of when to switch to dries?

MW: "When the indicator said I was out of fuel!"

Q. Did you see Kimi crash into Sutil?

MW: "Yep and I was like this [rubs hands]. He was having trouble warming the rears, I could see that from when he came out of the pits. It took two or three laps to get the rears started. He wanted to push Sutil hard on the restart, but the rear tyres were obviously not hot enough. He would have saved the car, but it was unfortunate. Of course I had a smile on my face. I owe Kimi a drink."

Q. What happened when Alonso and Heidfeld clashed in front of you?

MW: "I stopped and had a cup of tea! I didn't stall, but I did touch Fernando a little bit. He was desperate because he was on full wets, the wrong tyres, and he had to get down the road."

Q. Were the blue flags any good?

MW: "It's a nightmare for those guys [the flag marshals]. Some quick guys were two laps down or a lap down, and I was in the middle of everything. There are a few guys you don't want to catch when they're a lap down. Fernando was very good. But it's tough for the marshals."