F1 Highlights - Webber's maiden victory

By Mark Webber Red Bull F1 driver

I have been so busy since my maiden Formula 1 victory in Germany that I really haven't even had time to sit back and enjoy it yet.

Things were pretty manic after the race, as you would expect. I gave interview after interview, went through the team's normal debrief, and then flew back to the UK, where I live, as soon as I could.

And then Australia woke up and that was it.

I must have given at least 15 or 20 interviews to the Australian press through the night, while all the time trying to grab the odd glass of champagne with the family in among it all, before I finally ran out of steam and turned in around 0200 BST.

JAKE HUMPHREY BLOG I just wanted to say how pleased I am for Mark Webber

In fact, my partner Ann had to pick up the slack herself and do a few interviews on my behalf for the first time in her life!

Then I was up again at 0800 for more interviews, a couple of photo shoots, before a couple of hours at the team's factory with the engineers in the afternoon, and finally a drive down to London in the evening for a charity dinner for Ricky Ponting's Foundation with the Australian cricket team, among others.

It was great to be there to help support Ricky and the foundation, and I got a nice reception from everyone there as well. It just goes to show how many people follow Formula 1 because both English and Australian fans welcomed me.

But it's been a bit of a whirlwind. Tuesday will be the first chance I get to watch the race back in full. In the evening about 60-70 of us - family, friends, and my team mechanics - are going out to dinner and we'll finally celebrate properly.

Still, I do think the fact that I have my first Grand Prix win finally under my belt has sunk in.

It definitely helps that it hasn't come out of nowhere. The momentum has been building a while - I've now had two second place finishes and a win in my last three GPs - and I've known for a while this season that the team and I could do this.

However, obviously to go that final step and win a race - particularly following a fair, hard-fought race where I didn't have to rely on retirements or the weather - is so very special to me.

I even had to do it the hard way, really, given I was given a drive-through penalty for my collision with Rubens Barrichello off the start.

Looking back, I certainly don't think it was a no-brainer to penalise me.

When I got the drive-through penalty, I thought it would cost me victory so I was lucky to have my race engineer in my ear to keep me calm and reassure me I could still win the race

I can honestly say I didn't see Rubens. I thought I'd got a reasonable start from pole position and looked right and I couldn't see anybody. When I looked left I saw Lewis Hamilton charging through the middle and so I moved slightly to the right and before I knew it I'd slammed into Rubens.

I think the reaction from us both probably made it look worse than it was - we were both so surprised we'd hit that we jinked back the other way again - but in the end it was just us rubbing wheels, we were in front of the pack, and that happens in F1 racing.

Still, the stewards ruled that I'd been too aggressive and penalised me - I think they just wanted to spice things up a bit!

But I knew I had the beating of the Brawn cars before the race - we were running longer than them and their pace wasn't so great that it worried me too much - and so losing position to Rubens early on didn't shake me.

I was really worried when I clipped Lewis at the first corner, though. I thought there was a bit more damage to my front wing, but thankfully the guys have built a strong one and, for a change, I came out of a collision better than the other guy.

But then when I got the drive-through penalty, I thought it would cost me victory, even though I knew a good result was still possible.

The trouble was that I wasn't interested in second or third, and I was lucky to have my race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam in my ear to keep me calm and reassure me I could still win the race.

Ciaron never tells me what I want to hear, he gives it to me straight and that's the pact we have. So when he was telling me I could still challenge, I knew it was the truth.

The four of five laps after learning about my penalty were always going to be crucial.

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I really had to pull the pin in that time and, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen being quite slow in his first stint and holding up the pack, I was able to come out of the drive-through still in the lead. The win was back on.

My biggest threat thereafter was going to be from my Red Bull team-mate, Sebastian Vettel.

But we've got a good relationship and after the race he said he never felt he was going to beat me, which was touching to hear.

There was no point in the race, though, that I didn't stop worrying. With 20 or so laps to go I started to shut up shop, short-shifting and looking after the car, but I was forever looking at the sky hoping it would stay dry - not because I'm not happy in the rain, but because the team and I didn't need another decision to make.

It was only when I saw on my steering wheel there were five laps to go that I began to feel we could pull it off. I just had to keep hitting the apexes and braking points and stay cool.

As everyone saw, I let out a whole heap of emotion at the end!

It was a combination of relief and delight, but it pretty much came out as an unending scream. I didn't realise how long I was screeching for on the team radio until I heard it back afterwards.

In fact, that scream has already been played well over 100 times - in its entirety - on Australian radio apparently.

That's just an indication of the reaction I'm getting from back home. Australians like success in all international sports and another win in F1 has been a long time coming. Alan Jones was the last Aussie to win an F1 race in 1981, so my win has gone down amazingly.

Casey Stoner, Troy Bayliss, Ben Spies and Ricky Ponting all got in touch, Michael Schumacher texted me, which was nice, and Lance Armstrong gave me a mention in a newspaper too

I think the Aussie public understand the sport well now, too. In the past you've had to be die-hard F1 fans to follow the sport back there because of the big time differences and delayed telecasts.

But this year, they've been able to watch qualifying and the races live so it's become a lot more fan-friendly.

They see Lewis Hamilton struggling a bit this year and know the cars play a big role. As good as he is, Robert Kubica is going to struggle to win races in a BMW, and I've had a few seasons like that.

Now I'm in the best car of my career and I'm trying to make the most of it.

I've been lucky enough to have met some truly great people in my career, and I received a lot of messages from some of my sporting heroes, too. Casey Stoner, Troy Bayliss, Ben Spies and Ricky Ponting all got in touch, Michael Schumacher texted me, which was nice, and Lance Armstrong gave me a mention in a newspaper too.

And the reaction in the paddock has been positive, too, which is great. I think I've tried to be as fair and professional as I can with the media and people throughout my career, even during tough times, and if people in the industry can enjoy my special day as well, then all the better.

So, as you can imagine, my confidence is sky high at the moment - and I don't think it is entirely a coincidence that my victory came on the back of me having had a couple of screws taken out of the leg I broke last winter.

I had the best week of the season so far in terms physical conditioning ahead of the German GP and it's great to feel the leg getting better race by race, because I was kidding myself that it was OK during testing and before the season if I'm honest.

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I never want to use my leg as an excuse because no-one can do anything about it, I put myself in the position where it happened, and let's be honest it sounds rubbish anyway.

But I guess I was a bit under-cooked in the early part of the season and we're out the other side now.

Some people are likening me to Nigel Mansell, who waited a long while for his first F1 victory before going on to get a bucketload, and time will tell if I can do the same.

We've got some great races coming up and this car will be quick at all venues. I'm confident we can keep on producing.

That said, we have other teams in the championship who are fighting back now - McLaren, Ferrari and Fernando Alonso in his Renault - and that's how you want it. You want to be fighting fair and square against the best, and hopefully get the results.

Championship leader Jenson Button is not a guy who makes mistakes. He is incredibly consistent and he will continue to get points so, effectively, we've got to close the gap in the next six races, because he's got a two-race lead already.

A disastrous qualifying session or a first-lap incident in a race could easily happen to any of us

We need to get within 10 points with a race to go.

We have to focus on every race and the critical point of both championships - the drivers' and the constructors' - comes in the next two races in Budapest and Valencia.

Brawn have been struggling in the cooler weather, but those races should be hot. So it will be interesting to see how the cars compare when they aren't so compromised.

Jenson has had a flawless season, in terms of bad luck or accidents or whatever, and the law of averages says he has to have one of those sooner or later. No-one goes through a whole season like that.

But a disastrous qualifying session or a first-lap incident in a race could easily happen to any of us.

However, while the numbers might be a little bit in our favour, I'm off the back of two seconds and a first and he might say that's going to be hard to maintain as well.

Either way, the next few races are bound to be pivotal.

Mark Webber was talking to Andrew Benson

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