FOUR VALUABLE POINTS
13 June 2005 | 7:45am

MARK WEBBER finished fifth in the Canadian Grand Prix as a weekend that started with the simple objective of damage limitation ended with four valuable points for BMW-Williams - and his first in Montreal.
A two stop strategy dictated by his starting position in qualifying was always going to mean Webber playing the long game but an incident -packed race, including a disqualification and a safety car period, played into his hands.
Webber was up to 10th out of the first round of pit stops and sixth after the second and despite brake and tyre grip issues finished fifth, recording points for the sixth time in eight races.
“There is no doubt that finishing fifth having started 14th is a good result,” said Webber.
“We’ve got four more points and are now tied with Toyota for fourth place in the constructors championship.
“Of course Michael’s eight points means he leapfrogs me to take fifth in the driver’s championship but there is only a point in it.
“My start was quite poor, I didn’t get away well at all, in fact Christian Albers got past.
“Then I had quite a lot of understeer in the first stint because I had trouble getting heat into the tyres but I had the advantage of knowing I was going longer than those in front of me because I was on a two-stopper.
“The problem of getting heat into the tyres effected me particularly in the braking area which was why I went wide twice.
“Trying to manage the brakes around the stops and the high fuel was when I made a few mistakes. I missed the apex on lap 29 and decided to go straight on into the run off area rather than risk damaging the car over the kerbs and that cost me three places.
“Nick Ralf and Felipe went past and that put me at the back of that group.
“The safety car period worked well for us but I was having to work hard with so little grip in the tyres at that speed and the brakes were tricky as well and that’s why I went straight on at Turn One.
“I’d braked a lot earlier than usual but still ended up on the grass and lost a couple of places.“
“Trulli’s retirement earned me one back and after that it was just a case of running to the end and seeing what we could pick up from attrition.
“We wound up the engine on the final lap to have a look at Felipe Massa and see if I could get past him but there just wasn’t an opportunity.
“I’ve got to be pleased with today’s result. It was hard work but we have got something out of an average weekend and, what counts as much, is that we got four points and a decent starting position for qualifying in seven days in Indy.”

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