Monaco grand prix had all the ingredients to be a very existing one for the Red Bull team having one car in pole position and the other in P9 but with the possibility to chose its tyre strategy.
It was an incredible day for the team and at some point during the race it seemed very possible that Sebastian Vettel will make it two times in a row but instead it was Red Bull team who made three times in row with Mark Webber passing the finish line to take his second Monaco victory.
Here is what the key members of the team had to say shortly after the race:
MARK WEBBER: “An incredible day; this place gives you such amazing memories. There were different parts of the race where I had to be incredibly focused and make sure we really capitalised on the positioning we had. A good friend of mine sent me a text message this morning and said ‘You’re in charge, you’re in front and in charge’ and we were, but you can get bitten here very quickly. There were a few key stages around the stops that were interesting. Sebastian had his tyres very hot and was quick at that point and I couldn’t get mine going, but once he pitted I reverted my attention back to Nico and just looked after the rears until the end of the race. Then the rain came, which around here is very, very tough. But we had composure and experience and great team work on the pit wall. It’s a tough nut to crack this race, but we did it again. I had both hands on it today and I wasn’t going to let go.”
SEBASTIAN VETTEL: “It would have been nice to have been on the podium today. I think the speed was there, but in the end we had the same strategy as the leaders, just the other way round. It was quite difficult as we were on older tyres, but we had some good laps and we gained roughly around eight seconds, so that was strong. After that I was in traffic and it’s difficult to pass in Monaco, as I showed last year and Mark showed this year. We were hoping some of the leaders would be forced to do two stops, but unfortunately Kimi made quite a big gap behind me, so the leaders had clean air after their first stop. That helped them and it made it more difficult for us, but we started ninth and considering it’s hard to pass here, then to gain five places was a good day. It’s definitely good for Mark to win here and also for the team to get their third Monaco win in a row – it’s impressive.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal: “It’s a fantastic result for the team to achieve a third consecutive victory in Monte Carlo. Mark drove an immaculate race and after a very clean get away, he controlled the race from the front. We weren’t sure if it was going to be a one or two-stop strategy heading into the race, but Mark did such a good job on the soft tyre that he bought the option to make a one-stop really work and delivered the pace when he needed to. Despite some heart stopping moments in the last few laps, he controlled his pace fantastically well and never looked under threat. With Sebastian, after a good start he was in a high speed train in sixth place until all the soft runners pitted and then he
had his window of opportunity to put in some really competitive lap times on the worn hard tyre and that, together with a fantastic pit stop today, enabled him to jump both Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. So first and fourth is a great team result, it’s great to achieve a result like this, especially when all our partners are here in the Principality. All the races carry the same amount of points, but some are that little bit more special to win.”
Source: Red Bull, Images: Red Bull Content Pool/Getty Images
