RED BULL IS FOURTH AND FIFTH AS ALONSO REIGNS IN SPAIN
Company press release.
Sebastian Vettel retained his lead in the fight for the Formula One Drivers' Championship with fourth place at the Spanish Grand Prix, while Mark Webber improved from seventh at the start to a well-deserved fifth place.
After qualifying third, Seb made a great start to pass Lewis Hamilton for second place and set about chasing down pole winner and leader Nico Rosberg. However, in his first stop Sebastian lost his position to Alonso and dropped back. Alonso soon passed Rosberg for the lead and Seb, knowing that he had to keep in touch with the Ferrari driver, hustled his way past the slower Mercedes in Turn Six.
Alonso, however, was simply too quick and the Spaniard began to carve out a gap. Seb was also eclipsed by Felipe Massa and by Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen, who made just three stops compared with the other front-runners' four visits to the pit lane. With the benefit of low tire degradation the Finn was able to claim his third second-place finish in a row.
Afterwards Sebastian said his fourth place was a good result given the speed of those ahead.
'I think we can be happy with fourth today,' he said. 'The first three cars were a little bit too fast for us and regarding looking after the tires, they did a better job. We need to catch up; we're not going the pace of the car, we're going the pace of the tires and obviously we do something to make the tires wear more,' he added. 'We got some good points today, although of course we wanted more. The start was good, we then tried to hold on with a three-stop strategy, but had to change to four stops.'
Despite Raikkonen finishing in second place, the 12 points earned in Barcelona keep him in control of the Drivers' Championship standings with 89 points. Raikkonen is now four points behind the defending champion with 85 points, while Alonso's win leaves him third, with 72 points.
For Mark the race was a tale of profit, loss and profit. After being boosted to seventh on the grid when Felipe Massa was penalized for blocking the Aussie in qualifying, Mark lost out at the start and dropped back to 11th.
Thereafter, he made the most of an early stop and a switch to hard tires and rose steadily through the field until by the time he began his third stint he was in fifth place. It was a position he then held until the checkered flag, only briefly dropping to sixth after his fourth stop.
Trending News• Carlisle Auctions Concludes First Auction of 2024 – Sells More than 50% of Consignments
• RM Sotheby's Announces Further Incredible Competiton And Rally Greats Coming To Monaco On 10 And 11 May
• BONHAMS|CARS SPRING STAFFORD MOTORCYCLE SALE ACHIEVES £3 MILLION WITH AN INDUSTRY-LEADING 95% SELL THROUGH RATE
• VinFast officially signs agreements with 12 new dealers in the US
• Niki Lauda's Nürburgring Helmet – A Symbol Of Sporting Bravery And Determination – Comes To Bonhams|Cars Miami Auction
'We were struggling for the range and a bit of pace today, to be honest,' he said. 'The Ferraris and the Lotus were in a bit of a different league and that made it hard for us to compete today. I think we got the most out of what we had, particularly as by the first corner I was probably 14th or 15th, so to come back with that result was pretty good.' 'We managed to get back in to the scheme of things, but we were always a little bit on the back foot in terms of tire wear and ultimately pace,' he continued. 'If you don't have the pace, then you can't have the magic strategy. I was happy with how I drove and we got some points, but it wasn't the result we wanted.' Team Principal Christian Horner admitted the result had not been the one envisaged before the race but hailed the work of the Infiniti Red Bull Racing pit crew throughout the eight pit stops. 'A tough race. Fourth and fifth places obviously weren't the target going into the race, but the way it panned out it was obvious that tire degradation was going to be a key factor,' he said. 'We didn't quite have the pace today but we still managed to score some strong points. We made four pit-stops with both cars, saw some great work in the pit lane and recorded a succession of very fast stops. It was a good recovery after a difficult first lap for Mark.' The result means the team now has 131 points and remains at the top of the Constructors' Championship standings, 14 clear of Ferrari and 20 ahead of Lotus. Team Reactions Car 1 Sebastian Vettel, Finish Position: 4th, Start Position: 3rd 'I think we can be happy with fourth today. The first three cars were a little bit too fast for us and regarding looking after the tires, they did a better job. We need to catch up; we're not going the pace of the car, we're going the pace of the tires and obviously we do something to make the tires wear more. We got some good points today, although of course we wanted more. The start was good, we then tried to hold on with a three-stop strategy, but had to change to four stops.' Car 2 Mark Webber, Finish Position: 5th, Start Position: 7th 'We were struggling for the range and a bit of pace today, to be honest. The Ferraris and the Lotus were in a bit of a different league and that made it hard for us to compete today. I think we got the most out of what we had, particularly as by the first corner I was probably 14th or 15th, so to come back with that result was pretty good. We managed to get back in to the scheme of things, but we were always a little bit on the back foot in terms of tire wear and ultimately pace. If you don't have the pace, then you can't have the magic strategy. I was happy with how I drove and we got some points, but it wasn't the result we wanted.' Christian Horner, Team Principal 'A tough race. Fourth and fifth places obviously weren't the target going into the race, but the way it panned out it was obvious that tire degradation was going to be a key factor. We didn't quite have the pace today but we still managed to score some strong points. We made four pit-stops with both cars, saw some great work in the pit lane and recorded a succession of very fast stops. It was a good recovery after a difficult first lap for Mark.' Thierry Salvi (Renault) 'We would have liked to have finished the race a couple of positions higher of course, but this year it is difficult to be aggressive as you have to manage tire wear throughout the race. This in turn limits how you configure the engine and the options available to you. All the same, it was positive to finish fourth and fifth, which gives us a decent points haul from the weekend.'
