Another gearbox problem for Red Bull
It was a difficult day for the Red Bull Racing Team. Mark Webber, who started from 6th position on the grid, wasn't able to score points as he only finished 9th. Team mate David Coulthard had to retire due to a gearbox problem.
David Coulthard (Finish Position DNF, Start Position: 14th)
"I had a gearbox problem exiting the chicane and had difficulties moving up through the gears. It started to work again, but the gearbox temperatures had risen so much, I had to park the car. It remains to be seen what caused the problem, we need to wait and see. It's obviously disappointing, as I think our strategy could have worked well for us. We had a lot of laps under the safety car in this race, which can penalise some drivers who haven't done anything wrong. In the case of Alonso, a slightly different strategy at just the wrong time, put him out of the race. It's good to hear Kubica's okay, I saw his accident on one of the main screens, but I've heard he's conscious and talking, which is good news."
Mark Webber (Finish Position 9th, Start Position: 6th)
"My start was poor, I lost out to Rosberg and Kubica on the run to the first corner and was trying to fight my way back through. I had a good battle with Robert Kubica, but I went a little bit on the dirty stuff on Turn One and lost a few positions. I started to move up through the field again, which was going okay, but I knew there was still a long way to go. The safety car was deployed and initially it looked like it was going to help, but in the end it wasn't easy to follow what was going on, I didn't know who was doing what! The soft tyres weren't very good at the end so it was hard to fight Sato who was on the other tyre compound."
Christian Horner "Today was the first day that we saw the effects of the new pace car regulations. Mark benefited during the first safety car stint, but we lost out massively when the pace car came out again later in the race. Mark had been running in second and third, but dropped from second to ninth, so ultimately it was a very frustrating race for him. David had no choice but to pit under the safety car as he was right in his fuel window when it came out, and unfortunately we later had to retire the car with a gear box issue."
Fabrice Lom, Renault Principal Engineer, Track Support: "Needless to say we are really disappointed today. One of our cars retired and we need to understand what happened. With Mark, we missed the chance to score a strong result today. Once again it's a shame we were not able to make the most of our package because it has shown real potential. We have to hope for a better result in Indy next week and we will of course do our best to achieve it!"