Surrounded by luxury buildings and azure sea, guardrail line draws the 3.3km stage. This is the most gorgeous ball on the calendar, Monaco. It’s also one of the toughest races for the drivers. A driver who fights in Formula One always long for this “Blue Riband”.
Sebastian had already refreshed and focused on this Monaco after the disappointment of P3 finish in Spain.
"Would, could, should is not happening," he said. "We can't change the races we've had. Another race like last week, the key was to get maximum points out of it, and third place was not a disaster. It could have been much worse.”
It has been proven that the RB6 has a huge advantage in terms of its perfection showing superb speed in the Barcelona track. But it might not be applied for this special track surrounded by thousands of miles of guardrails. The gorgeous scene may bare its fangs suddenly. Mark Webber said even the strongest corps cannot be too careful in this track.
"It's a different track layout, and this place is so unique, you don't design your Formula 1 car around Monte Carlo because there's only one track like it in the year. It's a very demanding venue for the car and the driver, but it requires lots of different things compared to other tracks.”
His fears proved groundless. The Red Bulls were the most precise in terms of the distance from the guardrails and were the quickest in Monte Carlo. Backed up with the mechanics who worked hard by early morning 5 am, Monaco’s qualifying become theirs too. It is always said Qualifying is more important here because of its nature that won’t allow the drivers make overtakes easily. The one who got the most important one, its pole position was Webber.
"It's a sensational feeling to be on pole in Monaco,” he said. “It's a vicious venue in terms of punishment for mistakes. It felt like I found another gear in terms of confidence in the car today, I knew how important it was to nail a good lap because of the competition. The last thing I wanted was to be sitting on row three or four of the grid. When you're concentrating that hard and you're putting everything on the edge like that your heart rate goes so high!”
On the other hand, Sebastian underwent the Monaco baptism.
"Even though there were only ten cars on track I got a little bit of traffic, which was quite a surprise. It wasn't ideal to use the tyres properly, they came in nicely but when there was the peak I couldn't use it. I got space in the end, but obviously the lap time wasn't enough.”
Most part of the race had been decided at this moment. Sebastian climbed to the second place with superb acceleration from the third grid, but it was impossible to challenge to his teammate. He had to give the trophy to him who showed perfect job in this afternoon.
"I'm happy,” Sebastian said. “I think we achieved our optimum from third on the grid – normally it's hard to pass anyone, so second is good. I couldn't keep up with Mark today and we need to see why that was.”
“It was difficult, especially at the beginning and after all the restarts. Later on I finally felt I had more grip and wasn't too far off Mark's pace, but by then he was already down the road. There was no point trying to catch him, as overtaking is so difficult here.”
Receiving bless from Albert II de Monaco, Webber express his pleasure by jumping into the pool on the Energy Station. He couldn’t be satisfied by diving into the sea a few meters beneath the Station at last!
"It's a special day, the greatest day of my life I suppose.,” he smiled. “As a Formula One driver you really hope that you win races and if you have a choice then the blue riband event is very, very special for any driver. To join Ayrton Senna and the likes round here is a very special thing.”
“The last few laps are intense. Jenson actually said to me on the parade lap that when you're leading with a few laps to go, it looks like the track's narrowing and the barriers are coming closer and closer. Fifteen laps from the end, that's just what it was like.”
A gorgeous party has finished. The two Red Bull drivers lead the Drivers’ championship with same points and the Red Bull is on top of the Constructors’ ranking sheet. Now the Red Bull’s championship battle is getting hotter and hotter.
