Difficult day for Red Bull at Sepang
It has been a very difficult day for the Red Bull Racing F1 Team during the Malaysian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel finished only in 11th position, just outside the points, while team mate Mark Webber was able to collect valuable points with his 4th position.
Car 2 Mark Webber, Finish Position: 4th, Start Position: 4th
“It was busy with a lot of calls going on at the re-start and with the tyres. My stint on the intermediates after the red flag was tricky and I didn’t have much confidence. When I went onto the dry tyres, I felt much more confident, but it was a little bit too late then. You’ve got to take your hat off to Fernando and Perez today, there were some good calls made at the front. It was a mixed-up race and it was good to get some points. There were some great strengths to take from this weekend. The team has been working really hard, so thanks to them. We know there will be more opportunities in the future.”
Car 1 Sebastian Vettel, Finish Position: 11th, Start Position: 5th
“Most crucially we lost radio communication and that makes it very difficult in these conditions to know what’s going on. Nonetheless we did our maximum today and got up to fourth. To then lose the race how I did is very frustrating. Some people need to look more where they are going. Today it was crucial to come in at the right time. Having no radio meant we were delayed getting the messages and I didn’t hear anything from the team at the end. There were problems with the car after the incident, but I wanted to see the chequered flag. There were no points for me today. Before the incident with HRT the way the race had unfolded was good for us I think, so it’s frustrating to lose the race like that.”
Sebastian Vettel, Team Principal: “An action packed race with the rain coming down on the grid at the start. Before the race was red flagged, both guys had a reasonable starts. After the re-start we made the right call to change onto the intermediates with Mark and then a lap later with Sebastian. For Mark, the advantage of being the first car into the pit lane is that you get a clear run into your box, but the disadvantage on that occasion was that half the grid followed him in behind and we couldn’t release him until we had a clear space. After the stop Sebastian made a good move on Rosberg and set about trying to close the gap to Hamilton ahead. His race was going well. As the track dried, we went onto the slicks pretty early with Mark and a lap later with Seb. We had lost all radio contact with Sebastian, which meant we could only speak with him via the pit board. After his stop he came up to the HRT who hit him and caused a puncture. The incident caused damage to the rear brake duct, which went into thermal runaway, so we wanted to stop the car before the end from a safety point of view. Seb didn’t hear us on the radio and continued. Thankfully his car got to the end without failing, but the incident cost Sebastian at least a fourth place finish today. For Mark, after his final stop his pace on the slicks was good and he started to catch Lewis in the last third of the race. He finished in fourth position after what was a very eventful race.”
Cyril Dumont, Renault: “Unfortunately for us, today is a race to forget. There is already a lot of gambling when you have these conditions and if you add the issues we had – which was no radio communication with Seb for most of the race and with Mark for parts of it – then it made it even more difficult. The race was going okay until Seb had the incident with HRT which caused a problem with the left hand wheel. For Mark fourth place was not too bad, but we would have preferred for him to have been on the podium. We have two weeks away from racing now and will be pushing to get back to where we need to be.”
