SYDNEY, May 10 (Reuters) - Australia's Mark Webber thinks he will need an "inch perfect" lap to outqualify his team mate Sebastian Vettel and give himself a chance of a second successive Spanish Grand Prix victory later this month.
World champion Vettel, 23, has claimed pole in the first four races of the season so far, capitalising on his advantage to win three of them and open up a 34-point lead in the title race.
Webber, who is third in the drivers' standings behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, has set the fastest lap in three of the four races but is still seeking his first victory of 2011.
The 34-year-old, who started and finished second in the first Red Bull one-two of the year in Istanbul on Sunday, knows that it will take something special to outdo his German team mate in Barcelona on May 22.
"He's at the top of his game at the moment and it's up to me to close the gap," Webber wrote in his column in Sydney's Daily Telegraph on Tuesday. "To beat Seb in Spain, I'll have to do a better job than I did in Turkey," he added. "I'll need to be inch-perfect in qualifying and then have a cleaner first stint in the race than I did in Turkey because that will throw open a few more options in terms of strategy."
The car starting on pole has won the last 10 Spanish Grands Prix -- including last year when Webber pipped Vettel in qualifying -- and the Australian is convinced he is on the right trajectory to clinch his first win of this year.
"I've now finished fifth, fourth, third and second in the four races of the year, so the trend is going in the right direction," he wrote.
"We're off to Barcelona next, which is a track I like a lot. I won there last year and finished third the year before, and we had two good test sessions there over the winter.
"I just need to keep working," he concluded.
World champion Vettel, 23, has claimed pole in the first four races of the season so far, capitalising on his advantage to win three of them and open up a 34-point lead in the title race.
Webber, who is third in the drivers' standings behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, has set the fastest lap in three of the four races but is still seeking his first victory of 2011.
The 34-year-old, who started and finished second in the first Red Bull one-two of the year in Istanbul on Sunday, knows that it will take something special to outdo his German team mate in Barcelona on May 22.
"He's at the top of his game at the moment and it's up to me to close the gap," Webber wrote in his column in Sydney's Daily Telegraph on Tuesday. "To beat Seb in Spain, I'll have to do a better job than I did in Turkey," he added. "I'll need to be inch-perfect in qualifying and then have a cleaner first stint in the race than I did in Turkey because that will throw open a few more options in terms of strategy."
The car starting on pole has won the last 10 Spanish Grands Prix -- including last year when Webber pipped Vettel in qualifying -- and the Australian is convinced he is on the right trajectory to clinch his first win of this year.
"I've now finished fifth, fourth, third and second in the four races of the year, so the trend is going in the right direction," he wrote.
"We're off to Barcelona next, which is a track I like a lot. I won there last year and finished third the year before, and we had two good test sessions there over the winter.
"I just need to keep working," he concluded.
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