Red Bull has revealed that debris from the accident that forced
Timo Glock out of the German Grand Prix was behind
Mark Webber's first mechanical retirement of the 2008
Formula 1 season.
Webber had qualified in eighth place and was running just outside the points as the field circulated behind the Safety Car when he picked up debris from the damaged
Toyota on the start-finish straight.
That damaged the oil cooler on his car and resulted in only a second retirement of the season for the Australian on a tough weekend for the Red Bull team.
"We knew it would be a tight race with the guys that were around us on the grid,” he said. “I had a good fight with Vettel on the first lap and, as the race unfolded, there wasn't much between the cars.
“We know the weaknesses of our car here and we'll work on those before the next race. It was my first mechanical retirement this year; we'll have to check what caused it and make sure it doesn't happen again."
With
David Coulthard outside the points in his final German GP, team boss Christian Horner admitted that the weekend just hadn't gone to plan for his squad.
"An extremely disappointing race,” he said. “Both drivers didn't have a fantastic first lap and lost positions. Thereafter, our strategy was looking reasonable. The pace car came at a pretty bad time for us and we had to pit both cars due to Glock's accident. Mark unfortunately collected some debris, which damaged the oil cooler and caused engine oil loss. That resulted in us retiring his car.
“With David, after problems on the first lap, he was making progress through the field, but was compromised by the pace car and was then was hit by Barrichello, which meant the end of his afternoon."
