Christian Horner described Mark Webber’s winning performance at Silverstone today as ‘flawless’, while also praising a good recovery driver from Sebastian Vettel after the German picked up a puncture on the opening lap.
The Red Bull team principal was particularly pleased that Webber won in front of the entire team, who had made the short trip from Milton Keynes for today’s race.
“It's fantastic to win in front of all the team members today,” he said. “Mark drove an excellent race, he made a very good start and the team was fantastic in the pit stops – it was a flawless performance from him.
“Sebastian was unlucky at the first corner, I'm not sure if contact was made with Hamilton at the start, but thereafter he made an excellent recovery drive to score some important points for the team. It was unlucky to have got the puncture, but it was a good recovery thereafter.
“The most important thing today is winning this race in front of all the people that work so hard to make the team what it is.”
Webber ranked this victory alongside the one he picked up in Monaco in May. “It's great to win here in Silverstone; it's got such a lot of history and to win big races like this one and Monaco is so rewarding,” said the Aussie, who climbs up to third place in the driver’s standings with this result.
“The start was ideal, when I got to the first corner I was ahead and thought, 'let's get on with it'. It was a special day and a lot of hard work has gone in from the team – you don't get results at this level if you're not putting the effort in. They deserve this today.
Webber also had some comments to make about the team’s decision to give the new-spec front wing to Vettel for qualifying yesterday. Over the radio on his victory lap, he was heard to say to Horner “not bad for a number two driver”. Once he was out of the car, Webber was a little more restrained with his comments. “Yesterday was a unique situation, but I'm confident we can sort everything for the future,” he said. “Going forward, I will do the best I can. It was an incredible day today and I'm looking forward to enjoying myself this evening.”
Vettel, who started the race from pole position, had an issue off the start line, which Webber capitalised on. However, the German driver, who drops to fourth place in the drivers standings after finishing over seventh, was at a loss to explain how he picked up his puncture.
“I had a bad start, we went too aggressive with the clutch and I had quite a lot of wheel-spin,” he said. “Then I had the puncture, I didn't feel anything, so I wasn't sure what happened. After the first turn, something was strange and I saw the rear-right puncture. Unfortunately after I got it, I got a bit of damage to the car which lost me some performance, but I was able to recover and score some points, which was important.
“For the first thirty laps, I didn't have much to do except going around trying to catch up, but after the safety car I had some people to fight and that was good fun, I was racing people like Felipe and Michael – it's great as whenever you try something and you see a gap you know that they are smart enough to see it, so it was good fun for the last twenty laps. It's always a good race here with a great atmosphere.”
