Red Bull Racing’s Team Principal, Christian Horner, was pleased with Sebastian Vettel’s 2nd place finish in today’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
This was echoed by Vettel himself, who after losing out at the start to Lewis Hamilton, suffered tyre degradation, leaving him with no answer to Jenson Button’s Brawn GP car.
Mark Webber was relatively pleased with his solid performance. Having started from the back, Webber felt that he could achieve no more than his 11th place finish, but remained happy with the car’s pace and handling.
Sebastian Vettel – 2nd: “Very good. A good result and good points, but it was a difficult race. The start was okay, but then suddenly Lewis (Hamilton) was next to me – he must have pressed his special button and got an advantage. At the first corner we were three deep, me in the middle and Jenson (Button) on the outside, so I had to give way and lost two positions.
“Unfortunately I then got stuck behind Lewis, which caused degradation to the tyres – you start to slide and never really come back from that. It’s hard braking here so you need the tyres and rear stability. In the second stint I was just behind Jarno (Trulli), which was a shame as I was on soft tyres and could have gone a bit quicker.
“In the third stint, it was the other way round and I had to defend against Jarno who was then on the soft tryes. He was very close in my mirrors, but I didn’t make any mistakes and we came second! A massive thanks to all the guys for this great result.”
Mark Webber – 11th: “My start was okay, we had a reasonable first few laps, but then I got stuck behind Piquet. It’s very difficult to overtake a car with KERS, he was too quick on the straights and that really wrecked the first stint for me. We then converted to a two-stop strategy, but the grip was quite low on the prime tyres, although it was the same for everyone.
“If you don’t start near the front in these races we know the score, but I did my best. It was a good day for Sebastian, which shows the performance of the car. My mechanics worked like hell and the car was reliable, so we’ll have our day.”
Christian Horner: “Turn two dictated our afternoon, when Jenson (Button) and Lewis (Hamilton) managed to nip past Sebastian. He then lost a lot of time in the first stint behind Lewis and in the second stint behind Jarno (Trulli) when he was on the prime tyre. When he had the overlap and free air, he was very quick and was able to get himself up into second position.
“So, a great result, another eight points, we’re still second in the Constructors’ Championship and we had a car that was quick enough to win again today. Mark drove a difficult race from a difficult starting position. He had good pace but, as almost all the cars finished, 11th was probably the optimum for him today.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support: “Mixed feelings! Second is a place we can enjoy – it’s a very good result, 26 points from two races is very special for the team, but we had a car that was able to win today, so there’s a bit of disappointment too, and also for Mark. He was very quick, but when you start so low on the grid, it’s very difficult to overtake, especially the KERS cars. But, it’s a good result and we have a lot of points in the bag as we move to Europe.”
