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Webber eyes perfect finish

ABU DHABI - At 34, Red Bull’s Mark Webber is into the twilight of his career and the veteran is hoping that he can drive into the twilight at the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday.

After years of struggling with back end teams, the Australian now has the perfect machinery under him to win a Formula One title. Webber is eight points adrift of championship leader Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso going into the day-night Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend.

But he is up against youngs guns in the form of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and his own teammate Sebastian Vettel.

“These guys have more opportunities mate, of course. As Fernando alluded to a bit earlier in some of his answers that if you get a car like this when you’re 24 or 25 for sure, so you can probably look at it more that way, that obviously I didn’t really have a winning car earlier in my career which is the case for lots of people that come into Formula One. I now have that, been very successful at the back part of my career if you like, and hopefully I want to do it on Sunday, of course. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll obviously have another crack next year. It doesn’t change too much of my mentality mate. I know that I’ve been very fortunate even to have a chance to get to this point. I’m not getting too…not greedy but I know that it was good to have a chance that I’ve grabbed with both hands if I can,” Webber said on Thursday.

About the season, Webber said: “It’s human nature always to want more. Of course it would have been nice to close the championship out and be here as World Champion. All of us would love to have done that but at the end of the day, the way the championship has been, I think if there were even two or three races after this one it would still go down to the last race. No-one has ever had a 25 point lead. It’s been a very long season for all of us and as the season’s gone on, we’ve achieved so many amazing things, and obviously, personally, for me, to have some very special weekends.

“I’m fully respectful of the guys I race against and that’s what you get out of bed for, to try and beat them. So to have some of the victories that I’ve had this year, and even some of the second places to be honest, they are not as sweet as the wins, but some of the seconds… I’ve had some good fights with Seb and they have been rewarding. Quite a few podiums, the team’s won the Constructors’, we could obviously put the icing on the cake on Sunday which would be nice, but it’s been an absolutely incredible year for me personally and obviously for the team. So I don’t look on two thousand… if we don’t get the championship, for sure, OK, there’s going to be a little bit of a small hole there but a lot of great memories still.”

Despite the age, the man from New South Wales said that we would be around in Formula One next year.

“I don’t know if it changes your thinking too much to be honest. I’m going to be here again next year. Of course the longer you drive, obviously, the odds are going in one direction. I’m not going to be around forever, I clearly understand that,” he said.

james@khaleejtimes.com