Hopes dashed, Napthine 'snubbed', but at least the weather held out Premier Denis Napthine, well known as a horse racing man but assuring all in earshot that he enjoyed all forms of sport, was backing Australia's Mark Webber at Sunday's Formula 1 Grand Prix, with an outside hope for fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo. "I'll be cheering my heart out for Mark Webber," the Premier said shortly before Australia's fastest and loudest race. But I also hope that Daniel Ricciardo does really well. A young up and comer. It's great to see Australians doing well on the Grand Prix circuit. Ron Walker and Denis Napthine at the track. Dr Napthine and large numbers of Australian Grand Prix enthusiasts were to find themselves disappointed. Webber, who had qualified for the second spot on the front row of the Albert Park grid alongside his Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel, failed launch mode at the start, found himself passed within the blink of an eye by two Ferraris and two Mercedes and was seventh by the second turn. He recovered towards the end of the 58-lap race to gather sixth place, 46.8 seconds behind the winner, Finland's Kimi Raikkonen, of the Lotus team. Webber's hopes of joining Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones - bronze busts of whom were unveiled at the Albert Park paddock on Sunday - as the only Australians to win a grand prix on home soil were dashed. It was his 12th Formula 1 start in Melbourne. Ricciardo dropped to last within seconds of the start and was forced to retire on lap 39 when his car's exhaust system failed. Despite fears that Melbourne's volatile weather could repeat its Saturday by dumping rain upon the track - to the point that qualifying had to be postponed for the night and a Jimmy Barnes concert was abandoned - a damp and misty Sunday morning cleared by early afternoon. Rain jackets were shed and the order of chosen tyres stacked behind the spotless team garages on pit lane was swapped around. Wet weather rubber was shoved aside for super-soft and medium compounds. Tyres were on just about everyone's mind in the "paddock," that exclusive strip reserved for drivers, wives and girlfriends, team bosses, mechanics, computer operators, underlings and those blessed with invitations. It was the first race of the international season and Pirelli, the supplier, had created new compounds for the 325kmh race cars. Vettel declared during the morning that the super-soft dry-track tyres were good for just one lap, and drivers would find out during the race what happened after that. "Could be quite funny," he said. Pit crews missed the joke as, halfway through the race, dark clouds gathered, a few spots of rain had the crowd donning plastic ponchos and mechanics rushed to unpack wet-weather tyres again. Mercifully, the rain held off. Up in the VIP suites above pit lane, two former Victorian Premiers, Ted Baillieu and Jeff Kennett, mingled with captains of industry and movers and shakers. According to some granted entree, Mr Baillieu and Mr Kennett kept their distance from each other. The most noteable absentee from the event was Formula 1 chieftain Bernie Eccleston. Dr Napthine didn't think this was a problem at all. Asked by Fairfax why he wasn't furious that the man who controlled an event that received a $56 million subsidy from the state of Victoria couldn't manage to attend, Dr Napthine waxed lyrical about all the others who had made the effort. When you walk around the crowd here today you see thousands of international visitors, people of standing throughout the world, there are major business operators, there are people here as tourists and as guests. This is an absolutely outstanding international event on any measure," he enthused. The chairman of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Ron Walker, didn't find Mr Ecclestone's absence a problem, either, even though the contract between him and Victoria - which Dr Napthine was keen to point out was signed by the previous Labor Government - runs out in 2015. "Bernie Eccleston hasn't snubbed the Premier or Victoria at all," Mr Walker assured journalists. He's just busy working and he said just the other day that he would love to come and meet the new Premier after the Singapore Grand Prix [in late September]. We shouldn't panic about this - 2015 is a long way away and we don't be seen to be rushing things. On his side he doesn't want to rush things, the Premier doesn't want to rush things. We'll just conduct this in a normal government-to-business way in the way in which people do business. It serves the people very well. Mr Walker described the subsidy of $56 million to Mr Ecclestone's organisation as "value for money" as the hotel, taxi and restaurant industries were doing well and Melbourne's "brand" was winning immense recognition among television viewers across the world.