Sour and Sweet for Red Bulls

Sebastian Vettel today suggested a mid-race safety car period during the European Grand Prix could have contributed to his retirement from the lead of the race after 33 laps.

Starting from pole, Vettel hung on to first place at the start and built up a commanding lead. With 28 laps down the German had a 20-second advantage over second-placed Romain Grosjean of Lotus and showed no sign of slowing.

However, the safety car then intervened when Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne tangled with Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen, and Vettel’s race began to unravel.

The gap back to Grosjean was erased. The Red Bull driver knuckled down, however, and on the restart managed to hold the lead. But then, just as he was beginning to rebuild the gap his RB8 began to slow dramatically and eventually the champion was forced to pull over.

“On the straight down to Turn 17 I had to give way to other people,” he said afterwards. “The engine stalled, the engine just switched off. There was nothing we could have done. At the moment it’s not clear what exactly was the problem.

“I think the safety car was not ideal for us,” he added. “It might be that the retirement is, in some regard, is also due to the being under the safety car.

“Up to that point it was clear we were very strong,” he concluded. “I felt happy in the car. We had the pace. We were very quick. It felt really good. Also, after the safety car, the initial restart was OK, we were fine, but I suddenly lost acceleration and the engine stalled and I couldn’t do anything.”

It was a different story for team-mate Mark Webber. Unlike Vettel, the pre-race favourite, Webber was given little chance of success after a number of mechanical problems on Saturday saw him limp to 19th on the grid.

However, by the time the safety care exited on lap 33 the Australian was ninth. However, he was struggling on worn tyres and needed to pit. He did so on lap 38 and dropped back to 13th. With most of the front runners banking on taking their prime tyres to the end, it looked like Webber would be out of luck. But the leaders’ primes began to fade and Michael Schumacher and Webber, on softs, began to steam ahead.

Grosjean exited, with alternator problems and while Fernando Alonso assumed a lead he would not lose, Schumacher and Webber carved through the pack. A few laps from home they were sixth and seventh. Ahead though, Pastor Maldonado tangled with third-placed Lewis Hamilton.

The McLaren exited and the Williams dropped back, Schumacher and Webber flew past Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and as the Mercedes and Red Bull Racing crossed the line they registered third and fourth respectively.

Afterwards, Webber said it was a “very good day” and one that showed signs of getting better after Schumacher was summoned to the stewards to answer to accusations that he might had failed to slow for yellow flags.

“I’m very happy with today,” said Webber. “Obviously it was a tough weekend up until today. You never know. To be honest, I wasn’t even too happy even in the middle of the race. Strategy-wise you don’t understand what’s going on, what people are doing and what people will do in the last 15 per cent of the grand prix.

“Obviously there was a bit of attrition at the front today, which I’ll take. It was a very good day for me,” he added. “In the end we got a lot of points, maybe third, we’ll see if there is anything happening.

Webber admitted he had been surprised by his progress in the final few laps of the race, especially after his late stop, which he felt might hamper him.

“We tried to make a different strategy work at the start but after the safety I thought there were a lot of people getting home on the prime and that that wouldn’t be great for me,” he said. “But in the end the prime didn’t have the range from there. So the track temperatures did us a bit of a favour, as we had another stop to do. The people that tried to get home and they couldn’t, so for once it was nice to give Perez and all those guys a taste of their own medicine.

“So, another crazy day,” he concluded. “It’s very difficult to read what happens on Sundays. No one really knows. Strategy is really rolling the dice and we’re all just going on the fly. I didn’t mind the race, it wasn’t too bad: a bit of DRS, a bit of KERS and a bit of fighting here and there, but it’s still tricky to race. You can’t race that hard because you have to look after the tyres. In the end of a lot of points for me, so I’m happy with that from the back of the grid.”