Report – Saturday – Red Bull: The Calm After the Storm!

Red Bull Racing takes the prize for the biggest turnaround on this Saturday. A little look back at the first day of testing, which was dreadful for the Austrian team. An engine failure, a violent off-track excursion for Coulthard, in short, chaos.

But both drivers managed to react and show very good performances at the end of this second day. After great practice sessions where the Australian and the Scot placed 5th and 6th respectively, the qualifications went well in the presence of all the other teams accustomed to the front of the grid. The race will start with Webber in the top 10 and Coulthard in 12th.

Mark Webber – 5th and 6th (qualified 8th):

« To be honest, this day went better than expected. We worked a lot on the car yesterday, and the guys did an excellent job getting back on the path of improvement. »

« Q3 was quite tricky for many people, as the level of grip was lower than observed in Q2. We are in a good position for the start of the race. If this one goes well in comparison to the start in Melbourne, the situation could be interesting. »

David Coulthard – 6th and 12th:

« I was a bit surprised in qualifying because I was slower in the first sector than I had been in the morning with the practice sessions. What happened this weekend doesn’t concern me as a race driver, you never expect an engine failure but I have full confidence in the team. »

Christian Horner – Red Bull Racing Team Principal:

A solid performance for Mark who is positioned on the fourth row for tomorrow’s race. The weather became increasingly uncertain towards the end of Q3, but the 8th place is a positive result.

David caught up on the delay accumulated yesterday. He just missed Q3 and will start from 12th position tomorrow. The target remains, of course, points.

Fabrice Lom – Renault Engine Manager:

« Friday was really a bad day because this engine failure was the first since we started supplying the Red Bull team. But, fortunately, we bounced back today. We had very good qualifying sessions with 8th and 12th places. I believe we will be in great shape tomorrow. »