Official qualifying – Italian Grand Prix

September 13, 2003
For immediate release

Mark Webber will start tomorrow’s 53-lap Italian Grand Prix just outside the top 10 after posting the 11th fastest time (1min 22.754s) in today’s one hour official qualifying session at Monza. Webber’s team-mate, Englishman Justin Wilson, will start 15th fastest after setting a time of 1min 23.484s.

Although a far cry from Webber’s outstanding third qualifying position at the Hungaroring last month, today’s effort was a strong reward for the Jaguar Racing driver who had worked hard with the team over the past two days to try and improve the performance of the R4 around the ultra-fast Monza circuit.

“It’s been a difficult weekend for us and admittedly we do leave ourselves open for a fall after races like Budapest where we were genuinely strong,” explained Webber, “It’s easy to be disappointed after a result like that but even so, we’re learning all the time and trying very hard. We can’t quite get the performance we’d like out of the car around here. “There are 16 circuits we race at and at some of them we’ve proved ourselves quite nicely this year. But, there are other circuits where we need to gain more experience.”

Webber has been in and around the top 10 throughout weekend, setting the 11th fastest time in Friday’s official practice time (1min 22.368s) and then posting the sixth fastest time in provisional qualifying. His time of 1min 21.966s was identical to that set by McLaren’s Kimi Raikonnen. In today’s practice sessions, Webber could only manage 15th and 12th fastest and set the 12th fastest time in qualifying warm-up with a time of 1min 23.378s.
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