Published>Sun, Nov 14 10 12:17 AM
Mark Webber hoped fate and 'The Fat Lady' would favour his Formula One title hopes after he qualified fifth, behind the men he must beat in the race of his life on Sunday.
The Australian's Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Abu Dhabi season-ender with Ferrari's championship leader Fernando Alonso, who is eight points ahead of Webber, third on the starting grid.
Vettel is 15 points behind Alonso while McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, the other contender who is 24 points off the Spaniard's lead in an unprecedented four-way title showdown, qualified on the front row alongside the 23-year-old German.
"For sure I'm disappointed but it's happened and that's where I start the race," said Webber.
"We are still in the hunt, that's the main thing. It is disappointing but there is still a long way to go. The Fat Lady has not sung yet."
That may be true but Webber will either have to drive better than ever or get lucky with retirements ahead of him if even an imaginary opera diva is to consider singing the Australian national anthem on Sunday night.
"I need to finish ahead of him (Alonso) but also if I don't finish, I don't win the championship either," he told reporters at the Yas Marina circuit.
"The script is impossible to predict tomorrow. Let's have a look at the end."
NOT SO BAD
"If I'm sitting here and I'm third on the grid it would probably be pretty similar wouldn't it," added Webber when asked why he did not seem more downcast.
"If I finish one position ahead of Fernando or one position behind it's not enough. I need to win or him to have problems.
"It's not handed out yet," said Webber. "If it was a one lap race maybe not so good. But it's a two-hour race, things can change."
Webber has won four races this season but none since Hungary in August.
He has complained of being a 'number two' at Red Bull and an 'inconvenient' title challenger for the team but he was not pointing the finger at anyone other than himself on Saturday.
"We live by the sword. It's not like he's 25 seconds down the road and I've forgotten how to drive," said Webber.
"Yes I would love to have had some victories of late, I've done everything I can to get those and in the end I haven't got them because I haven't deserved them. Simple as that.
"I could be sitting here with no victories like (Ferrari's) Felipe (Massa) but I have a few so it's not so bad," added Webber.
"I could have crashed in Spa when it was sprinkling in Q3 (the final phase of qualifying) but I didn't. I put it on pole.
"It's over 12 months of hard work, you cannot just pin one point," he said when asked whether the final qualifying of the season might have cost him his dream.
"For me to sit there tomorrow night and say 'Oh, I didn't win the championship because I didn't qualify second on the grid or whatever....'," he added, tailing off without completing the sentence but leaving it clear there would be no recriminations.
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