Webber says he was driving with broken shoulder in final four F1 races

SYDNEY - Ace driver Mark Webber has said that he was driving with a broken shoulder in the final four races of this year’s Formula One season.

The Red Bull driver’s dreams of becoming the first Australian to win the formula one title since 1980 faded as teammate Sebastian Vettel captured the world championship.

Webber revealed the injury, sustained in a mountain bike accident, in his new book and said he had to have pain-killing injections before races in Japan and Korea.

He refused to blame the injury for his failure to win the title and kept it secret from his team boss Christian Horner, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

“On the Sunday morning before [the Japanese Grand Prix at] Suzuka, I got on a mountain bike for the first time since my accident in Tasmania at the end of 2008,” he said in his book, Up Front - 2010, A Season To Remember.

“I was riding with a great friend of mine. Suddenly, he crashed right in front of me and I had nowhere to go but straight through the ears of the horse! I suffered what they call a skier’s fracture to my right shoulder.

“Suzuka is a brutal track so it was a blessing that the Japanese weather gave me an enforced rest day on the Saturday [when qualifying was rained off], and a pre-race injection helped, too. In the end, we got through the weekend all right,” he said. (ANI)