Red Bull happy with 'good team performance'
Red Bull Racing proved happy after today's United States Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo finished on the podium while Sebastian Vettel progressed from the back of the field to score points for his 7th place finish.
Daniel Ricciardo, 3rd: “I’m happy with that. I could see the Mercedes for the first part of the race which was really cool, I don’t know if they were just chilling, but we seemed to have good pace. It was great to get ahead of the Williams and to get onto the podium. The start wasn’t very good, I have to put my hand up to that one, but the recovery was good so we didn’t really lose out. The pit stops were really good, Red Bull is known for being awesome in the pits and they showed it today.”
Sebastian Vettel, 7th: “The first half of the race wasn’t so good. The second half it came more alive and we were able to make up some ground with a pit-stop near the end of the race. We decided to go for fresh tyres with only a few laps to go, so we were in a stronger position at that point compared to others who were struggling on older tyres and the pace was better. The low downforce set up was good for passing, but it made it difficult to stay close to people.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “After a poor start, it was a fantastic recovery from Daniel. Some of his overtaking manoeuvres, along with the today’s pit work, got us back ahead of Fernando and the two Williams to take a place on the podium, so an incredible drive by Daniel. For Sebastian, after starting from the pit lane, he had a difficult first stint struggling with the wind; his race really started to come alive on his second set of tyres. Then, with a final stop going onto the soft tyres for the last eight laps, he drove incredibly well to finish seventh place from the pit lane – so a good team performance today.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault: “Daniel delivered another great result for the team today after starting fifth, dropping down to seventh and charging back to finish third. There were some great overtaking moves at a circuit where top-end horsepower is critical. Likewise Seb, who started from the pits and fought back superbly. He struggled a lot with the car during his first stint, but then came alive as the fuel load dropped. There were no problems with his Power Unit either, which helped him fight his way back up to seventh on the option tyre at the end. Once again both drivers have done the job. It’s now a question of being able to complete the final two races with these Power Units. Reliability is obviously key and we’ll be looking at everything in order to preserve them.”
