Italian GP - Red Bull Renault - QualifyingRed Bull Renault's ongoing reliability issues raised its ugly head again today in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, leaving veteran David Coulthard stranded on track and just 20th on the grid. Approaching the first chicane
in the first round of qualifying, Coulthard's RB3 snapped around as his gearbox locked and that was the end of his session.
Team-mate Mark Webber made it into the second round of qualifying and will start 11th.
David Coulthard
“We lost oil pressure in the gearbox, which locked the rear axel as I was going down the gears into the first chicane and I spun off the track. We need to take the gearbox apart to see what the exact problem was. It was unfortunate timing for it to happen, but 20th is now where we are for tomorrow.”
Mark Webber
“We knew it was going to be very tight to get into the top ten today, we haven’t been quick enough in the test, practice or qualifying. We’re getting used to being on the bubble of the top ten. It’s frustrating, I feel I did the best job I could today and the guys did a good job working on the car, but we’re just not fast enough at the moment.
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Christian Horner
“Eleventh is a frustrating place to finish, especially as we were so close to being in the top ten, ultimately missing out by less than a tenth of a second. However, eleventh gives us the ability to pick our strategy carefully for tomorrow and will hopefully allow us to race the Williams, Toyota and Honda ahead. David unfortunately suffered a suspected transmission failure, which will need investigating fully."
Fabrice Lom, Renault
“We are a little bit disappointed by today’s qualifying. For the second race in a row, our performance was not fantastic and today we also had reliability issue as we lost David in Q1. The fight is still very tight but we lost some pace compared to our direct rivals which is disappointing. We know tomorrow’s race will be long and that may work in our favour, but first we need to ensure both cars make it to the finish. We hope to make the most of our package in race conditions, but we know it will be tough."
Source Red Bull Renault