Sunday: A difficult race for the Red Bull drivers

Sebastian Vettel – Victory

« It was difficult today. At the start of the race, I thought I got a good start, I didn’t understand where Fernando [Alonso] came from! He started behind me, 16 meters behind, and halfway down the straight, we were side by side. He went inside Mark and I was on the outside, so he was ahead at the first corner. We couldn’t be close enough to use the DRS, so we got him with the pit stops. Quite early, everyone had already used up their soft tires, so we had to do half the race on hard tires. It looks like the McLarens were very strong, they stayed on a different strategy for a long time, which brought them to second place.

Since then, I knew it would be very, very tight; it felt like China during the last 10 laps. My tires started to go, and I was praying it was the same for Lewis, as they seemed to accelerate and go even faster, especially in the last sector. In the end, he was right in my mirrors, so you don’t know if you should defend or not. It was very tight, but in the last two laps, I managed to hold on. The KERS was working intermittently, which meant I was changing the brake balance very often. McLaren and Lewis made life difficult for us today. It’s a real relief when you cross the line and know you’ve done it, so I’m very, very happy. It’s a good result and, after yesterday, a good confirmation that we are strong, but as expected, McLaren and Ferrari made life difficult for us and are pushing hard. I’m really happy today.

Mark Webber – 4th

« I don’t think my start was disastrous, but Fernando made a fabulous one. So, it wasn’t what we had planned at the beginning, and it was a bit like a chess game. People were following each other’s pit stops, and I really didn’t have much to do on the track. At the end of the race, I finished 40 seconds behind Lewis and Seb. It’s an interesting day and it showed how close the margins are, we were frustrated by Fernando who seemed to stop every time I did. At certain times, I was fast and at others, I wasn’t. That’s how it was today. »

Christian Horner

A really exciting race. I think we were all surprised to see Fernando come out first from the first corner, and it changed the dynamics of the race. He didn’t have great pace at the front, and he was holding us up behind him. We were able to get past him with Seb through the stops, but couldn’t do it with Mark because Ferrari could see what we were doing. It’s a combination of teamwork and strategy. Sebastian had to overtake Jenson and Massa to make his strategy work, it was a real risk, but he came for it and made it possible. Unfortunately for Mark, he spent the first half of the race looking at Fernando Alonso’s exhausts, and to get past him, we did something we felt good about. Afterwards, it’s a bit frustrating for Mark, and the complete result would have been to see him on the podium too.

Cyryl Dumont

« It was a really tough race – I think it was the hardest of the season so far, but for the team, it’s still a good result. It’s really a shame not to see Mark on the podium, but he did a very good job to finish 4th and get some good points, for him and for the team. Next week is going to be important, Mark loves Monaco, so I hope we will have a good result there next week, we will see. »