Australian motor racing hope Mark Webber edged closer to FIA Formula 3000 Championship points leader Justin Wilson after finishing second in the sixth round of the series at the Nürburgring, Germany. 

Following a tough start to qualifying, Webber recovered to put his Super Nova Lola on the front row of the grid. "We hovered in about sixth place for a while," he said, "and it took a little while to get the car right. The team did a great job to fine-tune everything, because you really don't want to be starting an F3000 race from too far back on the grid - especially at a track like this, where overtaking is very tricky. Only 1.7 seconds per lap covered the whole field, so any small gain you could find was vital. Improving by just a couple of tenths of a second meant moving forward several places on the grid. It was only when we put on our third and final set of new tyres that I was able to extract the maximum from the car." 

Webber had a fright shortly before the start, because his engine died as he completed the final pre-race formation lap. "I don't know what happened," he said. "The motor suddenly cut and I was sitting there knowing I only had a few seconds to get everything fired up again. Fortunately the team always has a fully charged battery on board and I was able to get the engine running before the start lights came on. That was a relief - but unfortunately it proved to be a bit of a distraction and I was slightly out of synch at the start, so I wasn't quite as sharp as I might have been." 

While pole position winner Tomas Enge (Nordic Racing) made a flying getaway to seize a lead that would be his all race, Webber went on the defensive to hold the faster-starting Ricardo Sperafico (Petrobras Junior) at bay. 

"The start here is usually tricky," Webber said. "It is one of those tracks that usually provides the potential for a collision at the first corner - and there was a bit of chaos at the back of the field today. I wanted to keep things clean while making sure I held on to my second place. It worked, but I had to compromise my line and Tomas made such a good start that it was effectively his race from the first corner on. After about 10 laps I began to close on him a little bit, but there wasn't a big enough difference between us for me to catch him unless he made a mistake - and he never looked likely to make one of those. He did a really good job today. 

"To be honest, it wasn't one of my better races because I made a couple of small errors. I missed my braking at the chicane twice and went down the escape road, which was a better option than trying to make the corner and risking damage to the car by bouncing over the kerbs. I was far enough ahead of Ricardo that a couple of minor glitches didn't matter too much, but all things considered it is pretty satisfying to come away with second place and six points."

The result has brought Webber within five points of Enge's pace-setting team-mate Wilson, who failed to finish a race for the first time this year after his car suffered brake failure.

"I could see on one of the video screens adjacent to the track that Justin's car was in the gravel," Webber said. "I know how he feels. There have been a couple of times this season when we have struggled a bit in qualifying and had problems as a result in the race. This weekend it was his turn to have bad luck, but I have no doubt that he'll bounce back because he has been a fierce opponent all season.  

"The second half of the campaign promises to be interesting. Tomas, Justin and I have won two races each and it is clearly going to be a fierce contest all the way. But I can't worry too much about what the other guys are doing. I'll just be focusing on my own race and I see no reason why we can't be strong everywhere because the team always prepares a strong car." 

Webber has only a couple of days in which to prepare for the seventh round of the series, which takes place at Magny-Cours, France, next weekend.

"During the build-up to the Nürburgring," Webber said, "I tested extensively for the Benetton Renault Sport Formula One team at Silverstone. I covered three full grand prix distances in the F1 car and then had to jump into my F3000 Lola at Snetterton to make sure all the systems were working before we came to Germany. Magny-Cours marks the next stop in what is proving to be an incredibly hectic season, but I'm looking forward to all the forthcoming races. This is an awesomely tough championship - but no one ever said this game was supposed to be easy."

FIA F3000 Championship points:

1          Justin Wilson (GB)               31
2          Tomas Enge (CZ)                 28 
3          Mark Webber (AUS)             26
4          Bas Leinders (B)                  12
5          Jaime Melo (BR),                   8                    
=          David Saelens (B)                  8
=          Antonio Pizzonia (BR)            8
8          Sébastien Bourdais (F)           7
9          Darren Manning (GB)              6
=          Ricardo Sperafico (BR)           6
11        Stéphane Sarrazin (F)            4
12        Mario Haberfeld (BR)              3
=         Ricardo Mauricio (BR)             3
14        Patrick Friesacher (A)            2
=         Joel Camathias (CH)               2
16        Fabrizio Gollin (I)                   1
=         Andrea Piccini (I)                    1

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