By Ian Lockwood
July 11 2011

Mark had an eventful British Grand Prix, coming home just 0.4s shy of Sebastian Vettel in third place. He made two pitstops en route to the 25th podium of his career.

“It was a mixed race,” says Mark, “and I’ve come away with slightly mixed emotions. To win on Sunday afternoons, you have to get everything right and we didn’t do that. You make your own luck in motor racing and Fernando [Alonso] was the deserved winner of the race.”

A brief shower prior to the start played havoc with the teams’ tyre choices. The circuit was wet on four or five corners, but dry everywhere else and the field had no option other than to start on intermediates. Mark made a good getaway from pole position, but fellow front-row starter Seb Vettel did as well.

“The right side of the grid had more grip,” says Mark, “so Seb got the jump into Turn 1. But the race wasn’t lost at the first corner: I made a mistake at Becketts on my in-lap before changing to slick tyres and that allowed Fernando to gain a bit of time on me; the pitstops weren’t as smooth as at previous races and my front left tyre was finished by the end of each stint.”

Mark’s most competitive stint was the final one of the race. He quickly disposed of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren to take third place and then set about catching Vettel in second – much to the disbelief of his team.

“The team radioed me about four times, asking that I maintain the gap to Seb,” says Mark. “But I wasn’t happy with that because you should never give up in F1, so I continued to push. If Fernando had retired on the last lap, we would have been battling for the lead.

“The team was worried about Seb and me crashing because it wanted the points for the constructors’ championship. I understand that, but I wanted points for the championship too and we proved that we can race without making contact.”

This latest podium takes Mark past the career total of compatriot Alan Jones, who scored 24 podiums in his 114-race career.

“It’s nice to keep knocking up podiums because they prove that you’re doing a good, consistent job,” says Mark. “But I’d replace a few of them for a world title like AJ!”

Mark now turns his attention to the German Grand Prix in two weeks time. He won his first race at the Nurburgring in 2009 and he’s hoping for another competitive showing this year.

“The race is sure to be another exciting one and it’s difficult to predict which teams will be fighting for victory,” says Mark. “Lewis pushed Seb over the line in Spain and Fernando has been very quick at the last couple of races. It’ll be close, which is what the fans want to see. I’m looking forward to it!”