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Spanish GP: Post Race press conference

NEWS STORY
09/05/2010

Mark, Fernando described you and the team on Friday as unbeatable and you proved it today. You must be very happy?
Mark Webber: Yeah, absolutely rapped. After qualifying yesterday it was certainly a great position for us to start the grand prix in. We knew it was a long run to the first corner here and we had some pretty quick cars behind us in terms of top speed, so that was the very important part of the race to unlock that and get out of turn one still in the lead. It was quite tight into turn one. We had a good battle going into there and then I just settled into a rhythm really into the first stint, looking after tyres, making sure we got the option through as everyone is still learning, venue to venue, about how the tyres might operate. We had a pretty good idea they would behave themselves but you never know. We just made sure they were in pretty good nick and finishing the stint in a good fashion which they did. Clean pit-stop. I had Seb with me at that stage and then after the pit stop I had Lewis (Hamilton) behind me and we just controlled the gap really. Looking after the car, engine, tyres as still the grands prix are pretty long and the cars are built for a distance and you need to get the cars home. The team have been incredible this week, getting the cars ready, long, long nights for the guys, an incredible amount of effort at the factory. Working on holidays, so collectively Renault and Red Bull have put a huge effort in. The driver did his little bit of work and in the end it was a fantastic result and I am absolutely thrilled.

Fernando, it looked like it might have been fourth place at one point but it ended up being second. I guess that proves it is never over until it is over. How do you feel about your performance this weekend and the team's?
Fernando Alonso: Well, now I feel extremely happy after the result today. When you gain two positions in the last part of the race and unexpected positions as well it feels great and you have a fantastic feeling right now. Overall the weekend has been so-so for us. I think in terms of results fantastic weekend for us. Fourth in qualifying with a good performance I think and second in the race is fantastic for the team but as I said we need to improve. We know that. I think we saw this weekend we need to improve especially in some areas of the car to be close to Red Bull especially in qualifying. I think we learn some things this weekend. We work again to maximise out potential. Sometimes we know we will be first, sometimes fifth, sometimes we will be first hopefully, so as much as we do our 100 per cent every weekend we are happy with the job, so we need to be satisfied with today's race.

Sebastian, is there anything that didn't happen to you today? Unscheduled pit stop, brake problems and what about that incident with Lewis?
Sebastian Vettel: Well, a lot of things went wrong today. The start was okay. There was no chance to get past Mark. It was not worth taking the risk as it was quite slippery down the inside where he was, so I didn't want to take a run on the outside. I was not quick enough. I struggled a lot with the balance of the car. We see the car is quick. Mark was in his own league today but for some reason I struggled. Then a lot of problems. I think we came in too early. Probably expected Lewis to come in the same lap and it turned out not to be. The primes, the hard tyres, were a bit difficult to switch on, so we couldn't do the undercut and get him on the strategy side. Also we were a bit unlucky as we had to wait in the pit box a long time for the Ferrari to drive past and Jenson (Button) was coming in, so it was probably nine seconds. It felt like a nine second pit stop, so we lost a lot of ground and lost the position. It was very close where Lewis came out but there was no way, so to avoid contact I went wide. After that impossible to pass. I felt the car was getting a bit better but as soon as you get closer no chance to pass as you lose the grip. Then 15 laps from the end I lost the front left brakes and the last 10 laps I was lucky as there was so much gap to the back, to Michael. I was able to bring the car home. I don't know how to feel. Third is not a bad position and I think we had a horrible, quite bad race, with a lot of things happening we didn't want to. It is good to take some points but we need to work and keep pushing. The car is fast but you have to be able to use that every single time. It is 50-50 per cent chance of getting through. Mark had a race without any problems but for me it was the other way around, so difficult.

Mark, a reliable Red Bull and an unreliable Red Bull. Tell us how you see the championship evolving from what we have seen today?
MW: Well, it is still very early days. We know there are some very competitive cars, in particular Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren and there are some pretty decent drivers as well, so there is a long, long way to go. We need to see how the car performs at different venues. The cars are pretty sensitive to different tracks, so there is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet in terms of how this will shake out in the next five or six months. As Sebastian touched on, you need a quick car but you need to have one that is always there for you. It showed with McLaren with the failure there that everyone is pushing things to the limit. Ferrari have had some engine problems. We can build tractors, but they are slow. You need to build Formula One cars that are on the edge and this is the balance everyone is chasing.

Press Conference

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