Red Bull 1-3 extends constructors' championship lead
Mark Webber's second win of the year and Sebastian Vettel's third place finish made it a great weekend for Red Bull Racing at Silverstone. The team confirmed its car's pace while also extending its lead in the constructors' championship.
Mark Webber, Finish Position: WINNER! Start Position: 2nd:
“It’s taking a while to sink in this one. I think it was the circumstances of the race – for most of it I was marking off second place. Fernando was not quite out of touch and after the last stop, my engineer Ciaron came on the radio saying that Fernando was not doing much on the option tyres. But I know Fernando is a wily old fox, I thought he was looking after the tyres and just waiting to pull the pin and go a little bit. But when I got within two seconds I thought maybe he’s in a little bit of trouble and it was real. It was completely game on when I knew the DRS was available, I made the move stick and our hard work paid off for the win. It was a cracking grand prix today; the spectators got to see a good race and I’m pleased for them.”
Sebastian Vettel, Finish Position: 3rd, Start Position: 4th:
“It was a tough day today. The start was not so good. I lost a little bit and then got stuck behind Michael, but had a good strategy to come back. We decided to pit early and we came out ahead, so that was a good call. I would be a bit happier if we had won today, but it was a great result for the team, I am happy. We’re just down the road, so it’s our local race. It’s good it didn’t rain, I saw some clouds coming and it might have helped my race, but I was very happy for the people in the grandstands. I think they appreciated it staying dry. It’s been a tough weekend for them with rain, a lot of traffic and not so much driving from our side due to too much water – but I think we made up for that today.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal:
“An unbelievable day for the team. Starting the race, our strategy was slightly different to Ferrari with Fernando opting to start with the harder tyre, but we knew we could make our strategy work if we stuck to our plan. That was made slightly complicated by Felipe getting ahead of Sebastian at the start but then we were aggressive with the first stop and got Seb into clear air, which elevated him up the order. We then pushed as far as we could go on the option tyre with Mark, knowing that our time would come later in the race. After very strong middle stints from both drivers, we knew going into that final stint that we had a great chance and Mark started to catch Fernando, sometimes as much as a second per lap. He then made a fantastic manouvre around the outside which got him into the lead with four laps to go and he closed it out in style. Sebastian unfortunately ran out of laps. He was catching Fernando very quickly, but to have both driers up on the podium just up the road from the factory with so many members of the team here is great. We also had 25,000 pictures on each car supporting Wings for Life this weekend, which has raised a million Euros for the charity. So, after a tough start to the weekend, the sun finally shone for the fans and the team and it was a fantastic team result.”
Cyril Dumont, Renault:
“It was a close to perfect weekend. I’m pleased for Red Bull to win this race. Mark did a perfect race, I think he never stopped pushing. Seb almost got the one two today, but we got a double podium. Engine wise I’m pretty pleased that we didn’t suffer any of the issues we saw in Valencia and everything was under control today.”
