Team-mate
David Coulthard – having made the top ten on the starting grid for the first time since the Melbourne curtain-raiser, and on the back of two disastrous qualifying performances in Bahrain and Barcelona – ultimately crossed the finish line just over ten seconds adrift of his team-mate in ninth, and crucially less than four seconds away from the final points-paying position. On the plus side, the 37-year-old acknowledged, was the fact that for once he had got through an entire grand prix without hitting another car…
“I just missed out on points today, which is frustrating,” the experienced Scot related afterwards, “but I've looked around my car and there's no damage, so at least we finished a race without colliding with anyone! I raced as hard as I could. I dropped half a second just before my second pit-stop and came out just behind Nico, which was probably the deciding factor.
“I think the strategy guys did a good job today; I just wasn't able to eke the last little bit of pace out of the car. I had a little bit of understeer and difficult drivability getting the throttle open, which cost a tenth of a second per lap.”
Team principal Christian Horner, meanwhile, was full of praise for his two drivers' performance over the weekend, as RBR strives to break free from the midfield pack encompassing
Renault,
Williams,
Toyota and
Honda.
“Mark was mainly racing against Fernando,” the 34-year-old explained, “and was very close to out-running him at the first pit-stop – I think he missed out by half a second, which was unfortunate. Seventh was ultimately the outcome, and we collected a fourth consecutive points finish.
“David lost a position to Rosberg on the first lap and spent the rest of the afternoon chasing him. He looked quicker, but unfortunately we couldn't out-run him through strategy today, and David finished an always frustrating ninth. We're pleased to have maintained our 100 per cent reliability record after another promising weekend.”
