“We have done it again,” said Sebastian. “But every single time is tough. Obviously today we did a good job, but it's just eight metres on the track tomorrow. It will be a long race, but I think we can be happy with the car.”
Contrasted to him, Mark couldn’t do his best in the qualifying even though he was saying “For me the first race wasn't great, and Malaysia was a much, much more positive weekend. I'm still performing pretty well.” Because of the lack of running in Saturday’s practice, he couldn’t go through Q1.
“It's a very frustrating day,” said Mark. “We didn't have a smooth P3 or Q1 and we paid the ultimate price at end of the day. We thought we had enough to get through on the prime tyres - we have the pace, but I couldn't get the tyre working on my second run.”
It was a huge shock. But he stayed calm thanks to his rich experience.
“We'll see what we can do tonight, but I can only go forwards. I think if I was much younger I would be panicking but I'm not panicking at all, I've been around the block too many times.”
In fact he did daring race from 18th grid on Sunday. He switched to aggressive approach with three stops strategy and used best out of the RB7. Finally he claimed last place of podium. His race engineer cried out “Unbelievable, unbelievable! What a fantastic race! Congratulations!” on the radio.
“To see P17 on your board after 15 laps you think it might not happen,” he said. ”but suddenly I felt very comfortable with the car. I had a few sets of tyres left from qualifying, so that helped - and maybe that's the way to do it! Miss qualifying and go from there! But, all joking aside, I think the guys have done an incredible job and I haven't given up.”
On the other hand, Sebastian couldn’t make a best start. He regained the top spot at the first pit stop but his strategy according to tyre supplier’s suggestion brought unfortunate results. His tyres lost grip at last and it made him let another car pass.
“We came out in the lead and tried hard to stay on two stops,” he said. “The middle stint should really have been a little longer, but at the end of the race I found myself out on the hard tyre and could see Lewis coming closer and closer. I tried to defend as best I could, without losing too much time to the guys behind, but he found his way past.”
Even though it couldn’t conclude with three consecutive wins but the Red Bull Racing claimed 2nd and 3rd position and proved they’re the fastest again in 2011 so far. Finishing the beginning three flyaway rounds, Grand Prix circus will return to Europe. Real season will start again there.
