Malaysian GP - Red Bull Renault - RaceAfter a torrid start to the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend, the Red Bull Renault team brought home a two car finish today in Sepang with Mark Webber seventh and David Coulthard ninth.
Significantly, the two RB4s ran reliably throughout
the Grand Prix and while Webber lost two positions in the second round of pit stops, was able to score two hard earned championship points.
Mark Webber
“The start wasn’t fantastic, but we knew a lot of people would be on soft tyres at that point of the race. I got a really good run through Turns one and two and came out in fourth position. The first stint went okay, but I struggled a bit during the second stint with poor grip, although we kept trying to chip away at the times. I also got stuck behind Sato at a crucial point in the race and lost around two seconds, when we should have stayed in front of Heidfeld. I’m pleased for everyone at Red Bull to get two points, it’s been a tough start to the year for us and it’s great to get the car to the finish today. A big thanks to Renault too.”
David Coulthard
“There was too much graining on my first set of tyres, so I lost nine seconds in the first part of the race, which was frustrating. It was very hot out there, but thankfully it was also a little bit overcast, so that improved things.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal
“Mark drove a good race.
He had the handicap of an air pump issue from very early on, which meant we had to build in quite a large safety margin, fuel wise. This required him to stop earlier than scheduled in order to compensate, which over the course of the race probably cost us between 12 and 15 seconds. Unfortunately Sato didn’t move out of the way at a critical point when we were racing with Heidfeld, otherwise I’m sure we would have stayed ahead over the final stop. David put in a very gritty drive, especially after not feeling one hundred percent this morning, and was very competitive in the second half of the race. It’s good to go away from here with some points on the board.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault Principal Engineer
“For the team it’s a good result. We had one finish in the points, and one finish very close to the points. It wasn’t a trouble-free race, but we managed it well as a team and it’s great to get two points, which we will now look to build on at the next race.”
Source: Red Bull Renault
