Freak circumstances sidelined Webber

Red Bull Racing have revealed that a freak set of circumstances may have been to blame for Mark Webber’s retirement from the Singapore Grand Prix. Webber was on-course to finish on the podium, however a mechanical failure – his first of the season – forced him to retire from the race on Lap 30.

Webber’s car limped to the pits with a broken gearbox after it had tried to select two gears at the same time. Team principal Christian Horner explained to Autosport that a bizarre set of coincidences might have been the cause of the issue.

“At Turn 13, the gearbox selected two gears at one," Horner explained. “The moog valve controlling the gearshift had been triggered into changing to seventh while he was still in fifth yet after interrogating the software we can see that it at no time was allowing for this. We can see a momentary electrical surge at the precise moment which seems to have triggered the moog valve.

“It was exactly what [Toro Rosso] suffered from with Bourdais in Friday practice at exactly the same place. A tram line runs beneath the track at that corner and it seems as if static from a passing tram at the very moment Mark was in the corner passed through the ground."