For immediate release May 22, 2000




Mark Webber still maintains a strong third position in this year's FIA International Formula 3000 Championship, despite recording his second non-finish in as many races in round four of the series at the Nurburgring, Germany on Saturday (May 20).

As at Barcelona two weeks ago, Webber's Eurobet Arrows Lola was hit from behind and - this time - sent into a half spin at the first corner of the opening lap. Stranded across the track, the young Australian's car was hit again, this time the impact damaging the right front wheel and suspension and putting Mark out of the race on the spot.

The weekend however, got off to a much more promising start, with Webber setting the pace in the early part of the opening qualifying session, on what was his first ever visit to the Nurburgring. Still getting used to the track, Webber was more than satisfied with his time of 1min. 30.941s, which left him 11th fastest overall and comfortable in the knowledge that there was more time to be had in the second session.

A heavy but brief shower of rain just before the start of the second session kept the majority of cars in the pit lane and it wasn't until the final 15 minutes that the field took to a now rapidly drying track. Webber was sent out on used slicks but once he saw how dry the track had become, he opted to pit for a new set of rubber. "We should have been on fresh rubber from the start. We made a mistake. Once I was out there on the old tyres and saw that the track was bone dry, I was in a no-win situation. I knew I wasn't going to improve my time on the rubber I was on but equally, if I came into the pits to change, I probably wasn't going to have sufficient time left to get the most out of the new tyres which weren't coming in until about lap eight or nine."

To compound matters further, Webber lost valuable time when he was called into the weigh-in and he only was able to complete three laps on new tyres before the chequered flag. Webber was ultimately bumped from 11th fastest to 16th.

Webber made another strong start in the race but his efforts amounted to nothing when he was hit from behind. "If you qualify poorly, it is very hard to stay out of trouble," he said. "After the formation lap, I knew there would be a lot of carnage at the start because everyone's
front tyres were still very cold as it was difficult to get any temperature into them. I just
wanted to get through the first lap - I didn't care what position I was in just so long as
I made it round - but I wasn't even able to do that. It was another frustrating weekend -
the car was fantastic, I had no problems learning the track, it was just that we didn't
get our tyre strategy right when we needed to."

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