• Video
• Image

Please install the latest Flash player

Mark Webber said he ignored team orders and desperately tried to pass Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages of the British Grand Prix. Source: Getty Images

Sparking another Formula One furore that could lead to his team being fined, an irate Webber defied his team when they directed him not to overtake his teammate Sebastian Vettel as the race neared a thrilling climax.

Webber looked to have the reigning world champion's measure but was repeatedly told "to maintain the gap", infuriating him.

Ferrari was last year fined and the sport turned on its head when the Italian team ordered Felipe Massa to let Fernando Alonso past him in a coded message.

"I'm not fine with it," Webber said. "No. If Fernando had retired on the last lap then we would have been fighting for victory. I was fighting until the end.

"I ignored the team because I wanted to try and get another place. Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best. I just wanted to race to the end, but with four or five laps to go they started to chat to me about holding my position.

"Of course, they want the points, but I also need to try and get some points as well."

During a press conference showing the strained relationship between the Red Bull drivers, Webber attacked his team and its tactics while Vettel defended.

Off contract at the end of the season, it is unknown what affect Webber's brave honesty will have on the prospect of a new RBR deal.

RBR team principal Christian Horner said he was stunned by Webber's refusal to obey orders and would talk to him in "private".

"About four laps from the end we felt it had gone far enough," Horner said.

"From a team point of view, there was a big haul of points on the table and it made absolutely no sense to risk seeing both cars in the fence and coming back on a tow truck.

"His engineer asked him to maintain the gap a lap or two before my intervention. It was pretty clear Mark had chosen to ignore that.

"There comes a point in a race where it would be absolute stupidity to allow them to jeopardise it ... if they'd crashed. Both drivers are now first and second in the world championship, and we're not going to do anything to jeopardise that.

"At the end of the day, the team is the biggest thing. No individual is bigger than the team. I can understand Mark's frustration ... but had it been the other way round, it would have been exactly the same."

Webber, who won Silverstone last year, came third this year after Vettel (second) and winner Alonso.