Unrewarding race for Red Bull
It was a very difficult and unrewarding day for the Red Bull Racing F1 Team in the Belgian Ardennes. Mark Webber, who had a good start, got hit by Heikki Kovalainen and lost a lot of time. The Australian finishd 9th and just outside the points at Spa-Francorchamps, while David Coulthard was unable to score some points during his final Belgian race.
Mark Webber (Finish Position 9th, Start Position: 7th)
"The first few laps were quite tricky due to the conditions, but our start was okay. I was running a bit short and when doing that it helps to have a clear track, but I didn't. I lost some time behind Bourdais, who was a bit heavier, but we were still in a reasonable position. Then I got hit by Heikki (Kovalainen) and lost some time. It hurt our strategy, which was quite aggressive. The car felt best in the last stint on the prime tyres. It's a shame we didn't get any points today, the guys had put a lot of effort in."
David Coulthard (Finish Position 11th, Start Position: 14th)
"I got held up a lot behind the Hondas at the start and it was hard to make up positions from there. We have poor drivability. The changeable conditions made things interesting at the end, we could probably have changed to intermediate tyres one lap earlier."
Christian Horner: "A busy afternoon for the drivers and the pit crew. Mark was unlucky in the first stint of the race when he got hit following a very optimistic move by Kovalainen, which cost him a lot of time and track position. In the final laps we gambled to split the cars and left Mark on dry tyres and put David on intermediates. David had a poor start and we had elected to run a one stop strategy, anticipating variable conditions which arrived with three laps to go. Today's result doesn't represent the hard work that the team is putting in at the moment, but I'm sure our luck will change soon."
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support: "A very difficult race with mixed conditions, especially at the end. It was a hard race for the engine, which was very stressed on this track. We will cross our fingers as we still have Monza to do, which is fifty per cent of the job."
