Terrible result for Red Bull after great qualifying
Red Bull racing had the worst possible race result they could ever imagine. For the first time this year, neither of the Bulls made it to the finish. Mark Webber went out from second position, while Sebastian Vettel had a disappointing engine failure after leading the whole race.
Sebastian Vettel, Finish Position: DNF, Start Position: 1st:
“This is not a nice moment, but I think it was a difficult race for all of us today. To be at the front of the field for the whole race, controlling it and looking after the tyres, I think there’s nothing more we could have done. All in all we did an almost perfect job today and also yesterday in qualifying. It was getting dark towards the end of the race; I had a medium visor on my helmet and it was hard to see some of the bumps on the track or the reference for braking, but the guys finished the race so there must have been some visibility. There are still fifty points available in the Drivers’ Championship, it would have been easier if we had won today and the engine hadn’t have broken, but that’s life and how it goes sometimes. We will keep our heads down for the last two races. We have a very strong team and a strong car and we know we are the quickest. I can go to sleep tonight knowing I did everything I could today and we still have everything to play for.”
Mark Webber, Finish Position: DNF, Start Position: 2nd:
“It was totally my fault, I got on the kerb on the exit of Turn 12 and it was a very slow-motion moment off the back of that kerb – it was my mistake and it wasn’t my day. I thought I’d managed to catch it, but I lost the car and made contact with the wall, nothing too heavy, but it was enough to bring the car back to the other side of the track and then Nico (Rosberg) hit me, which wrecked his race as well. Conditions were okay by the time we were racing – on the edge, but okay. Today didn’t help me with the Championship, but I can absolutely still win it; this was only my second non-finish of the year. Positions aren’t the most important thing, points are and they can change very quickly. I’m back with the others now on points, but there are still two races to go and I’ll do my absolute best.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal:
“Some days motor racing can be cruel and for Red Bull today it was unfortunately one of those days. Mark was unlucky, he dropped a wheel on the kerb – one of the few mistakes he’s made this year – and it bit him hard. Sebastian had the cruellest of luck – ten laps to go and out of the blue he had an engine failure. As a team we’d done everything right today and we had the pace to win. Starting on the front row, we got the strategy right, we read the conditions right and to have an engine failure, almost in sight of the end of the race, is appalling luck. It’s our first nonpoints score this year, but we leave here still in the lead of the Constructors’ and we’re still in it in the Drivers’ too; Mark’s second and Sebastian’s only one race-win behind the leader. We gave Fernando (Alonso) a big present today, but it was only two weeks ago that we were celebrating a one-two finish and we’ll be back in Brazil.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support:
“Renault must apologise to the whole team for the engine failure on Seb’s car. We need to investigate more before giving more details about the failure – it was an engine that was at its third grand prix but it obviously wasn’t expected. What a bad result for us, we scored no points after starting on the front row – it’s a big disappointment. We are still in the battle for both Championships and we will continue to push very hard – we took a hit today, but we will bounce back stronger in Brazil.”
