Mark Webber said Red Bull should be proud of its breakthrough 2009 season after the Milton Keynes-based squad claimed its fourth 1-2 sweep of the season in the Abu Dhabi finale.
Webber finished a distant second to team-mate Sebastian Vettel at Yas Marina, but, after claiming his first two grand prix wins and six other podiums in the course of the season, expressed his satisfaction with his and the team’s accomplishments.
“I just want to congratulate the team for their patience with me at the start of the year [during Webber’s recovery from a cycling accident in the winter].
“It’s been very enjoyable driving with Sebastian this year, Renault have given us a fantastic engine, and overall Red Bull can be incredibly proud about what we’ve achieved.
“It’s been my best season and we’ve had 16 podiums together, so it’s good.”
The Australian stayed close to Vettel in the opening stint but fell steadily adrift during the middle phase of the race and then had Jenson Button filling his mirrors in the closing stages as he struggled for grip on the softer ‘option’ tyre.
“Seb was just that bit quicker today in all three stints, especially the last one,” admitted Webber.
“I was pretty happy on the [harder] prime [tyres], but I didn’t have much of a feeling on the options.
“It was the same thing on Friday, I was quite slow on that tyre and I preferred the stability on the prime.
“We had a bit of a short-fill unfortunately, so JB could do some good laps on the overlap and close the gap down on me.”
Webber put on a masterclass in defensive driving to fend off Button’s advances on the final lap.
“I knew it was going to be quite tight at the end. I just had to make sure I was accurate with my braking points, and we knew he had a slight top speed advantage but not much.
“It’s a credit to how well he’s driven all year, and at the end we had a good clean fight – on the limit for the two big stops.”