Spanish GP - Red Bull Renault - RaceStarting ninth, David Coulthard drove a strong race to bring home his Red Bull Renault in a fine fifth position. A gearbox problem in the closing laps resulted in Coulthard racing without third gear, but he was able to hold off Nico Rosberg
for the position. Mark Webber's miserable weekend showed no upturn as he retired with hydraulic problems.
Coulthard's four points move the team up to seventh in the standings.
David Coulthard
“Towards the end of the race, I lost third gear and thought I was going to have to retire the car. I managed to drive using only fourth gear and above, which lost me time in the last sector, but I was still able to be quick in the first. We’ve made more progress than any other team since the beginning of the year and when you’re aggressively attacking lap times, sometimes you have to put other areas of the car to one side. That’s the growing pains we’re going through at Red Bull Racing at present, but I think everyone agrees we’d rather have pace and show we’re genuinely quick – and then work on reliability, than have a reliable car that only finishes tenth.”
Mark Webber
“Unfortunately reliability problems cost me a race finish today. At the moment, I think it’s a recurrence of yesterday’s hydraulic problem.
We had planned to go for a long first stint because of my low grid position, but it doesn’t matter what strategy you have if you don’t get to the finish. There’s not much more to say except for the obvious fact that it’s disappointing. But, at least David’s great result and finish in the points proves that the car has the pace to do well. It’s a great boost for the whole team.”
Christian Horner
“David was exemplary today. He had good pace, a good start and a good strategy. Despite a problem that gave us all a bit of a scare in the last three laps, he found a way to drive round it by using all his experience. He was able to bring the car home in fifth position and get us onto the scoreboard. I’d like to acknowledge the huge effort made by the whole team. Everyone’s been working hard over the last few weeks, but we still need to keep pushing. It’s disappointing that we had a repetition of yesterday’s transmission failure on Mark’s car. He’s had miserable luck all weekend, but I’m sure he’ll bounce back in Monaco and we can head there optimistic, in full knowledge that we’ve made a good step forward in pace here this weekend.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault
“We are very pleased with today's result. We scored our first four points of the season and showed that our package has real potential. The engine worked perfectly and its good qualities in low revs even helped compensate for David's gearbox problem in the late stages, and helped him to defend his position. In spite of Mark's unfortunate retirement, we showed today that we have nothing to envy our direct competitors and that we have genuine potential, which is very encouraging for the coming races!"
Source Red Bull Renault
