Saturday: A mixed day at Red Bull Racing
The weekend for Red Bull is mixed, to say the least. Sebastian Vettel's is approaching perfection, while Mark Webber's Saturday resembles a nightmare. Christian Horner will have to manage two very different races tomorrow morning.
Sebastian Vettel – 1st
« We did it once again, but it’s difficult every time. I think today wasn’t as easy as we had planned, especially during Q2, I made a small mistake on my lap. In Q3, I was confident that we could improve the time. We clearly did a good job today, but it’s just eight meters on the track tomorrow. It’s going to be a long race, but I think we can be happy with the car. We did some long runs on Friday, so we have our reasons to feel good about it, but it’s also a danger to feel too good, so I will make sure that doesn’t happen. »
Mark Webber – 18th
« It’s a very frustrating day. We didn’t have a normal session, neither in P3 nor in Q1, and we are paying the biggest price at the end of the day. We thought we were fast enough to make it with the hard tires – we had the pace, but I couldn’t get the tires to work well on my second run. We’ll see what we can do tonight, but I can only move forward. I can’t remember the last time I went out in Q1, it was a very, very long time ago, so it’s a bad day for us »
Christian Horner
« A third consecutive pole for Sebastian and, as he didn’t have to finish his second run in Q3, he was able to save his tires for tomorrow. After a Herculean effort by the whole team to repair Mark’s car and see it out in Q1, it was really disappointing for Mark and the team that he missed the cut. We opted to use the hard tires for his second run, thinking it would be enough, but unfortunately, they weren’t at the right temperature to succeed. Of course, in hindsight, you’d use the soft tires, but at the time, it seemed sufficient to us. It’s one of those things, and it’s the first time we haven’t had both cars in Q3 for over a year. »
Cyril Dumont – Renault
« There’s one word to describe this day: ‘mixed’. An impressive performance from Sebastian again, what a pace, three races and three pole positions, so congratulations to him. For Mark, we had some issues with the KERS this morning, and we weren’t able to use it in qualifying. Unfortunately, he went out in Q1, but I have no doubt he will have a solid race tomorrow, and that he will get back to where he’s supposed to be. »
