In the above video Mark Webber talks about his return to Silverstone for this weekend’s British Grand Prix. All while he is taking passengers out for hot laps around the Rockingham circuit.
Last year Webber bagged the win at Silverstone in what is considered Red Bull Racing’s home GP. He’ll have his work cut out to beat Vettel on current form, but here’s hoping he can find something extra and claim his seventh F1 win.
Perhaps the most exciting stat to emerge from the 2011 European Grand Prix is that all 24 starters finished the race. That’s only the fourth time in history this has happened. Indeed, Narain Karthikeyan has his name etched into the record books for being the first ever F1 driver to finish 24th. To help relive this rare occurrence here’s 88 pics, featuring all 24 cars, for you to enjoy.
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) won the 2011 European Grand Prix in Valenica overnight. It was his sixth win of the year. He has quite a large lead on the championship leaderboard.
Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) finished second. It was his equal best finish for the year.
Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) finished third. He had problems with his gearbox.
Pretty exciting report so far? Well, it matches the lack of excitement in the race. If you didn’t, perhaps you should have watched the Nürburgring 24 hour race instead.
[Pic: Red Bull Racing/Getty Images]
The qualifying dominance of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing has continued again at the 2011 European Grand Prix. Vettel’s best time (1:36.975) was a couple of tenths ahead of teammate Mark Webber (1:37.163).
Webber needed to bites at the cherry, though, as his first flying lap in Q3 placed him on the third row of the grid. All drivers came out again for a second timed run, but most aborted when it was clear they could not match the pace of the Red Bulls. Nick Heidfeld (Renault) and Adrian Sutil (Force India) elected to conserve tyres and didn’t even bother to post a time in Q3.
That leaves Lewis Hamilton (McLaren, 1:37.380) as the fastest challenger to Red Bull, ahead of the two Ferraris and teammate Jenson Button.
The transcript of the post-quali press conference can be read after the break.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
As promised here is the very wet photo gallery from the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix. The amount of water shown in some of the pics is amazing; it really must have been treacherous.
Despite his final lap cock-up Sebastian Vettel’s tally of 161 points gives him a 60 point lead in the drivers’ title race, ahead of Jenson Button (101pts) and Mark Webber (94pts). Red Bull is well on the way to another constructors’ title, holding a 69 point lead over McLaren.
What an epic race the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix turned out to be! It included a red flag postponement for two hours and five minutes due to incessant rain and a final lap lead change handing victory to a guy who, just after half-race distance, was in last place. That’s right, Jenson Button (McLaren) could hardly believe his luck when he crossed the finish line in first place, upsetting what looked like being another Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) demonstration event.
The race began under Safety Car conditions thanks to heavy rain and finally went green after five laps. Aside from some early pressure from Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) Vettel pretty much had the race to himself, despite the three further Safety Car periods and long rain delay which followed.
Button clashed with his McLaren teammate early in the race, forcing Hamilton to retire. Both men were investigated by the stewards after the race with no further action taken. On lap 37 Button made contact with Alonso, again the stewards were unperturbed, even though the incident ended the Ferrari driver’s race. With a puncture to his front left tyre, Button was able to limp back to the pits and rejoin the queue behind the subsequent Safety Car required to clear Alonso’s car. All told, the 2009 world champ had five pit stops for tyres and a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the Safety Car, as well.
Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) was turned around by Lewis Hamilton after the first re-start and found himself down in fourteenth place. His struggles continued as pit stops didn’t work out his way meaning he spent more time mid-pack than hoped. Both Red Bulls were suffering intermittent KERS issues during the race also. In the closing stages, Webber was the first driver to fit slicks and following the final Safety Car found himself fighting for a podium in the middle of a scrap with Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) and Button.
Meanwhile, facing a nine lap dash to the end, Vettel was able to pull away from the fight behind him. Button pounced to pass a scrambling Webber and then used DRS to great effect to pass Schumacher; a feat Webber finally completed at his second attempt on his way to third. Once Button had clear air he quickly caught up to Vettel who was unable to respond. On the last lap the young German ran wide and gifted the lead to Button who capped off a remarkable race.
Comments from the first three drivers can be read after the break, with a sodden Canadian GP picture gallery to follow soon.
[Pic: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes]
Word coming from the Red Bull Racing garage in the build up to this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix says are happy to keep Mark Webber for the 2012 season. Webber turns 35 in August and has been signing one-year contracts of late, saying he wants to ensure he has the desire to keep racing at the highest level before committing to another year.
Christian Horner, Team Principal, tells us that Mark’s desire is still there, “Mark has made it clear he wants to continue with Red Bull next year.
“One of the questions we had was does he still have the motivation and desire. We believe he does and we’re happy to continue.”
There’s likely to be a bit of negotiating before pen is put to paper, but it’s a good start when both parties are willing.
What impact this likely deal will have on Daniel Ricciardo‘s hopes to secure an F1 seat in 2012 is uncertain. However, if I was Jaime Alguersuari or Sebastien Buemi I’d be a little concerned about my long-term future with Toro Rosso.
[Source: BBC | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
The Red Bull Racing showcar was in Japan on the weekend. Sebastien Buemi was at the wheel, helping to bring some light relief and enjoyment following the horrific earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.
All was going according to plan until this loony-tune, described as an event official, decided to see if he could take a running jump over Buemi’s car. He didn’t make it over, of course. Thankfully, Buemi was only travelling at an estimated 30–40km/h at the time, otherwise this incident could have been much worse.
After the incident Buemi said, “I am not allowed to comment on the accident before Red Bull has finished their investigations.”
It’s been reported the crazed official was “injured only slightly.”
A FoxSports News report of the incident can be seen after the, ahem, jump. The clip is only likely to remain active for a day or two, so check it out now.
[Source: Speedcafe | Thanks to Ryan for the tip]
UPDATE: Further videos of the incident have now been added below.
Referencing UK newspaper The Sun is generally not high on our agenda here at AUSmotive, but today we stumbled across an article we thought you might like. Ann Neal, Mark Webber’s manager and partner, gives us a small insight into Webber’s off-track obligations during a Grand Prix weekend.
There’s not a lot of technical insight, it’s mostly discussion on scheduling and the like. Although, Neal does close by mentioning Webber’s co-ownership of a GP3 team with Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing Team Principal. She doesn’t see Mark taking the step into trackside management once his driving career is over, “People talk about Mark becoming a Team Principal, but I don’t think he’s up for the politics of it all.”
Also included in the link below is a video interview with Horner where he debriefs the Monaco Grand Prix, touching on the woeful pit stops suffered by both drivers.
[Source: The Sun | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
We figured you have probably seen enough of Sebastian Vettel on the victory dais, so we’ve given the Red Bull Racing images a miss from Monaco. Actually, that’s not true, it looks like the Red Bull media site is having a few technical issues so, for now, we’re missing photos from them and Toro Rosso. It’s shame, because, as usual, there’s some great pics in there. Hopefully we’ll have them for you shortly.
In the meantime, there’s another 62 pics from the Monaco Grand Prix for you after the break. We’d love to hear which one is you think is best. So take your time, have a good look and leave your comment below.
UPDATE 1 June: New pics from RBR and STR have now been added.
Sebastian Vettel has made it back-to-back wins for Red Bull Racing at the Monaco Grand Prix by claiming victory in a dramatic race overnight. His fifth win of the year, and his first on the famous street circuit, has given him a seemingly unassailable 58 point lead in the drivers’ standings. Fernando Alonso achieved Ferrari’s best result for the season to date by finishing second, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.
As always, Monaco provided plenty of action and gave us the first Safety Car laps of the year. The race was heading for a thrilling climax with Vettel, Alonso and Button all nose-to-tail with six laps remaining. All drivers were on different tyre strategies with Vettel, having only stopped once on lap 16, hoping to hold his track position by running 62 laps on the Prime tyres.
Vettel was somewhat forced into a one-stop strategy after the usually lightening quick Red Bull crew made a hash of his first pit stop (9.6 seconds) and followed that immediately after with a worse stop for Webber (15.5 seconds); all but ruining the Australian’s race, who did well to fight back to fourth place.
Meanwhile, in the closing stages Alonso’s tyres were fresher than Vettel’s, but still 20-odd laps old, while Button’s three-stop race meant he had the cleanest and quickest rubber of the top three.
On lap 72, while fast approaching slower traffic, the leading trio were lucky to miss a bit of kerfuffle immediately ahead of them involving Vitaly Petrov (Lotus Renault GP) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso). The pair crashed into the barriers and caused the second Safety Car period of the race, which quickly turned into a red flag after initial concerns over the well being of Petrov. With just six laps left to race it was first thought the race would end and Vettel would be declared the winner. Petrov was safely removed from his car and it subsequently appears he will be okay.
While Petrov was being attended to the cars formed up on the grid and under red flag conditions were able to make the most of a relatively lengthy delay by making minor adjustments to their cars if required. Crucially, this also gave teams the chance to fit fresh rubber if available to them. Ultimately, this handed Vettel the race who, after the restart, was able to hold off Alonso and Button for what looked like a comfortable win. Although, at various times all three men on the podium would have felt like they were best placed to win.
You can read what they had to say after the break. Video highlights are available at the One website.
[Pic: Ferrari]
Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel has secured yet another pole position; his first at the Monaco Grand Prix, his fourth P1 for 2011 and his nineteenth career pole. His final time was a blistering 1:13.556 and was four tenths quicker than McLaren’s Jenson Button (1:13.997) who qualified on P2.
Mark Webber has suffered the seemingly inevitable Red Bull Racing KERS gremlins at stages over this weekend and was unable to set a lap time at all in Thursday’s Free Practice 1. He’ll take some satisfaction that his best time of the event so far (1:14.013) was set during the final quali session, enough to see him start form P3 later tonight.
With 2:26 left to run in Qualifying 3 Sauber driver Sergio Perez ran wide on exit from the tunnel and hit the barriers. He then lost control and stopped after suffering heavy side impact with barriers near the chicane. The session was stopped for an extended period while medical crews carefully removed him from his car. There were reports not long after he was removed from the car that he was conscious and talking. It has since been confirmed he is okay and suffered concussion only, although he will miss the race.
The post-quali press release transcript from the FIA can be read after the break, along with statements concerning Perez.
[Pic: Red Bull Racing/Getty Images]