Australian Mark Webber took full advantage of the chaotic conditions during the European Grand Prix to claim a podium position. The third place was only Webber s second podium finish his first was at Monaco in 2005.
“This is a podium I can enjoy on a special day for us,†Webber remarked. “The team deserves it after all the effort that has taken place behind the scenes. It is great to get some points on the board, especially as David finished fifth as well. I didn’t have a good start and was on the back foot, the rain certainly came much earlier than we expected.
“We had to make a quick decision and went for the intermediates, but as the rain got much worse we were aquaplaning really badly. The FIA took the right decisions in bringing out the Safety Car and then suspending the race. I did a long run on the grooved tyres, which helped me pull away from the guys behind, even if I struggled a bit in the middle stint with the rears.
“I have to say I wasn’t too disappointed to see Kimi retire. Towards the end I began to think I had it in the bag, but I thought ‘oh god’ when I saw the rain coming again. In the final part I had massive vibration from the rear tyres and that’s why Alex got so close.”
Christian Horner, boss of Red Bull, has said the strong result at the weekend has boosted the team s morale. The team had failed to score any points in the last two races and have been plagued by reliability problems all season. Seeing Webber finish third and Coulthard finishing fifth has given the entire team a boost.
“It’s a great morale booster for the team,” Horner explained. “Everybody has worked tremendously hard and today everything came together. The calls from the pitwall were spot on, we read the conditions just right and with our strategy, and the drivers did their part – it was tremendous.
“We had to be competitive on the circuit because we still had to beat the BMWs and the Renaults, and we had the pace to do that today. It was a very, very positive result for the team. Mark had a horrible start from the inside of the grid, but recovered on the first lap. Thankfully, they emerged unscathed from the first couple of laps and they used their experience and did a fantastic job.
“We’ve had a faultless weekend and the effort that has gone in has paid off today. This is a result that everyone has contributed to and it really kick starts our second half of the year.”
Coulthard was also happy with the way the team performed and was pleased with his result.
“I am very happy for the team,” Coulthard said. “It has obviously been a difficult start to the year with some reliability issues, but nonetheless to show the pace we did in this race was good and the calls we made on strategy were a credit to the team; the pit stops were great. After such a bad qualifying, it was only ever going to be a change of conditions like these that was going to give us a chance to move forward and we ended with a podium and a fifth place for me.”
The result means Red Bull have now leapt over Toyota in the constructors championship and are now in sixth place, just two points behind fifth place Williams.
