Red Bull flatter to deceive
For probably the first time this season, both Red Bull cars were completely outclassed at the German Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel could only manage third whilst Mark Webber dragged his ailing car to a sixth place finish.
Despite qualifying on pole position, Vettel came home in third place following a poor start whilst Webber had yet more of those Red Bull reliability problems to come home sixth. Despite his problem, Webber never really looked like getting to grips with the Hockenheim circuit and was playing second fiddle to Vettel all weekend. The disappointment for Webber was clear for everyone to see after the race, especially following his outstanding drive 2 weeks ago.
Despite their problems in the race, it was all looking so good for the team as they once again flattered to deceive a little bit on a Saturday afternoon. For a team that has secured 10 out of 11 pole positions so far this season, you would expect them to be leading the Championship by some considerable distance, but yet they find themselves sitting behind McLaren.
In my opinion, their failure in Germany is down to 2 driving errors more than the failure of the team. It started in Q3 when Mark Webber ran horribly wide at turn 1 of his final flying lap, costing him the chance of any higher than 4th on the grid. The other error came from Vettel at his home Grand Prix. Having qualified on pole, he cost himself the chance of victory off the start-line. Yes, he didn’t have the best of starts but he concentrated so hard on fending off Alonso that he left the door wide open for the fast-starting Felipe Massa. Maybe if Vettel had actually seen Massa too, he might not be coming away with a 3rd place finish.
During the race itself, Vettel did keep the Ferrari’s on their toes but you got the impression that the Scuderia could’ve gone faster if they’d needed too.
Having started on pole position, Vettel admitted that he was surprised by the start the Ferrari’s got.
“Normally we have very good starts, so I’m not really sure what happened today. There was no way I could stay ahead of him (Alonso) and then I was surprised to see Felipe coming from the left.”
And despite starting in the best position, Vettel seemed very content with his podium finish.
“We finished third and I think we can be proud of that. We achieved our maximum today and I was very pleased to be on the podium.
“It’s very special for me at my home grand prix, it’s great to see the people here and to be on the podium – to see everyone cheering is very nice and emotional.”
Team boss, Christian Horner bemoaned the starts off both of his drivers.
“Today’s race was dictated by the start. Unfortunately Sebastian didn’t get away cleanly and ended up on the right-hand side of the track. Massa got a good run on the left and we emerged from turn one in P3 – that’s what shaped the race as far as Sebastian was concerned.”
Going into Hungary this weekend, both cars will be hoping to perform slightly better on a Sunday afternoon, but with the new found pace of Ferrari and Alonso’s love of the Hungaroring, can the team really better their performance this weekend?
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