“Unfortunately Timo’s car was hit on the first lap, breaking an element of his rear suspension, but that’s racing. Next time he will make it to a better position as well. Now we head to Bahrain looking to keep up this momentum; we will try to get both cars into Q3 and then aim to fight with the top teams again.”
Christian Horner [Red Bull – 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 twelve 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 100 per cent 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 [Red Bull – principal engineer Renault engines]:
“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.”
Flavio Briatore [Renault – managing director]:
“Unfortunately we did not make the most of the strong grid position with Fernando and this left us down the field, in spite of both Fernando and Nelson doing their best. The only point we bring home is no consolation, and now we have to work hard to pinpoint our problems so that we can come back stronger in two weeks’ time in Bahrain.”
Pat Symonds [Renault – executive director of engineering]:
“A relatively straightforward race, which gives us a much clearer picture of where we all stand. There is not much to report with either car, as both drivers had uneventful races and there were not many strategic opportunities. It is clear we need to work hard on the car and improve it, as there is a big gap to the front.”
Ross Brawn [Honda – team principal]:
“This weekend was more straightforward for the whole field compared with Melbourne, and we saw fewer drivers making mistakes. Sepang is also a more representative circuit in terms of car performance, as Melbourne can produce unusual results.
