“The most important thing today is that Mark Webber is safe and OK. After a very nasty accident, he's fine,” said Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner as the Red Bull foregrounded the Australian's terrifying flight on lap nine of the European Grand Prix.
Webber had lost places off the line and pitted early, and was trying to pass Heikki Kovalainen for position.
“I was going a lot faster than Heikki and then a long, long way before the braking point he braked – about 80m before – and at that point I'm a passenger,” said Webber. “The car, thank God, was very safe. I am OK, I lost some points, but in the end when you’re up there, you’re not worried about points, I was worried that I was OK and ready for Silverstone. You cannot control where you are going and how hard the hits are going to be. Of course, the hits were pretty hard but it's good that I am OK.”
“It was my Monte Carlo and Barcelona winning chassis and one which has secured a lot of pole positions, so the chassis has been good to me, and it has been good to me today as it saved me from some injures. I remain incredibly positive, we go on, it's half way through the Championship. Bloody hell, let's get on with it.”
The Safety Car the crash brought out failed to knock his teammate Sebastien Vettel out of his rhythm, as the German kept his lead almost entirely unchallenged for the whole of the race.
“It's good to be back winning and on a circuit where we didn't expect to be that strong,” explained Vettel. “But we were quick enough at all times in the race to pull away, find the gap and then guide the car home, but it wasn't as easy as expected. It's good to get a lot of Championship points and the guys can be extremely proud, so a good weekend for them. Most important of all today is the fact that Mark had quite a big shunt but he's fine – it shows that the cars get safer and safer but still there is a lot of risk so it's good that he's OK.”
Sebastian drove a very mature race and controlled his pace perfectly. After some bad luck recently, this result will be a boost for his confidence. Finally, congratulations to all members of the team for the relentless hard work that is getting performance to the car at each race. We now look forward to Silverstone in two weeks time.”
Vettels' win saw him climb over Webber in the drivers' points standings while the team lost ground in the constructors' race to McLaren, who took the other two steps of the Valencia podium.
Photo Credit: Andrew Hone/Getty Images
