Vettel found his “mojo” during the Spanish GP

After a successful Spanish Grand Prix, where the Red Bull team placed its two drivers in 3rd and 4th positions, behind the Mercedes, Christian Horner reflected on the overall performance of his team and his view on the gap separating them from the Silver Arrows, as well as on Sebastian Vettel’s performance.

« It’s encouraging, » he begins during the press conference organized by Red Bull, before stating: « The gap of 48 seconds is a bit artificial because we lost a lot of time behind the Williams [of Valtteri Bottas, ed.] in the first stint, and then once you are in no man’s land, it’s all about tire management until the end of the race. So if you look at the last stints, especially when the Mercedes were attacking, and Sebastian and Daniel had a clear track, we really closed in. »

Thus, on the 55th lap, Sebastian Vettel was able to clock the fastest lap of the event, at 1:28.918, ahead of the two Mercedes, with Nico Rosberg clocking 1:29.236 (lap 51) and Lewis Hamilton 1:29.483 (lap 54). Daniel Ricciardo, for his part, had the fifth-fastest time, with 1:30.012.

The Milton Keynes team will still have work to do to be in the exhausts of the W05 Hybrid, but the Spanish race is a cause for satisfaction: « There is always a long way to go, but we are definitely closer. And, of course, they were attacking as hard as possible, so it wasn’t as if the Mercedes were easy. It’s a significant gap to close, but it’s great to see that we have made progress and taken the lead over the Ferraris and the rest of the pack. »

But Christian Horner also wanted to highlight Sebastian Vettel’s race; the four-time world champion, who started 15th after a shortened qualifying and a penalty, finished in 4th place: « It was an excellent performance from Seb, he really went for it. He overtook in various places, outside the usual spot at the end of the straight. He managed to make the strategy work, he knew he had to overtake. I think it was fantastic driving on his part. »

The German is the only driver in the top 5 of this Grand Prix to successfully carry out a three-stop strategy, allowing him to attack at the end with two sets of new medium tires.

This led his director to say that he’s back in business after a tricky start to the season: « This weekend, you could see that his driving is back, a fastest lap, the way he hunted down the Ferraris… it seems like his mojo is back. »

In the drivers’ standings, Sebastian Vettel is in 4th position, with 45 points, compared to 100 for Lewis Hamilton the leader and 39 for his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. On the constructors’ side, Red Bull is second, with 84 points, compared to 197 for Mercedes.