As for Red Bull Racing’s efforts on the track, Mark was unlucky in traffic, had a spin and even though he put in the second fastest race lap, he was never going to be in the hunt for the big numbers and comes away with just a single point.
With David, there was nothing to lose given he was starting from the middle of the grid and a gamble to put him on the intermediate tyres at his one and only stop didn’t really pay off. There are only four more chances this season to show what we can really do and everyone is determined to put in maximum effort to pull in more points.
That effort starts next week with the final test session of the season, when we run from Wednesday to Friday at Jerez in southern Spain.
Car 10, Mark Webber, (Finish Position 8th, Start Position: 3rd)
"We came out after the first stop behind Robert and Fernando and lost a lot of time on the fresh tyres. That’s when Heikki got a really good gap on me, so the first seven or eight laps behind them killed the tyres and trying to go through them wasn't easy so lost some time. The last section wasn't too bad, but when you're ten seconds behind starting it, then that's where you've finished. So we did give some points away today, but it's hard to get everything right on days like this."
Car 9, David Coulthard, (Finish Position 16th, Start Position: 13th):
"I had some difficulties in the beginning as my brake balance bar jammed, so I couldn't get rearwards on the brakes - they locked up and I went off at 2nd Lesmo. Thereafter I burned out the rear tyres early so I had blisters on the rear wets. Coming into the pitstop we put on the inters, but again seemed to burn out the rear tyres early, so I kept tip-toeing through the corners and kept losing places. In the end Nakajima came out around on the outside under braking at the Parabloica, but there's an arc through the corner and I couldn't avoid him - when he was turning in he hit my wing."
Christian Horner:
“First of all congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Toro Rosso on a fantastic result for Red Bull. Sebastian drove a fantastic race and totally destroyed the opposition. Red Bull Technology can be very proud of the car that they have provided. Mark's first stint in the race was good, unfortunately he dropped out in traffic and then a spin on his out lap on inters cost him places to Massa. However, he was very quick at the end of the race, but unfortunately, having dropped places on his out lap he couldn't re-gain them, so a frustrating result for Mark when the potential was there to do better. For David we gambled on running an inter on his one stop with nothing to lose and unfortunately, towards the end of the race he started dropping back and then an accident with Nakajima finished his afternoon.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support:
“A difficult race for us. We were third on the gird, but in these conditions Mark nearly went off. We finished eighth with one point, so it's better than nothing but honestly very, very frustrating. In the end the pace was there - we were very quick. But well done to Sebastian and to Toro Rosso. First pole, first victory the same weekend it's magic.”
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