Crash leaves Bulls’ boss red-faced
Red Bull boss Christian Horner was still fuming on Monday after teammates Mark Webber and Sebastian
Vettel collided in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix — and handed momemtum to McLaren.
Smooth-talking Horner was left almost lost for words in the wake of the crazy crash — and in the red mist that descended over the team afterwards many close observers questioned his and Red Bull’s ability to recover and regain the initiative.
Having thrown away another race-winning situation, Sunday’s incident will have Red Bull wondering whether they can overcome their reliability and sustainability fallibility — which has seen a team that has started from pole position in all seven races, take home just three wins.
It is no wonder that McLaren, now leading the race for the Constructor’s title, see this twist of fate as an opportunity to assert themselves as the number one team again after weeks of improvements.
Indeed, it appears the tortoise may finally have caught the hare — just when the hare has started self-inflicting injuries.
Ferrari, the early season pace-setters, remain third ahead of Mercedes and Renault, despite a string of disappointing results that continued in Sunday’s race, their landmark 800th in Formula One.
Webber, 33, still leads the Drivers’ championship over Britons Jenson Button and Sunday’s winner Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, second and third respectively.
Double-champion Fernando Alonso represents Ferrari in fourth, ahead of Webber’s Red Bull teammate Vettel, 22, in fifth.
For the young German, Sunday’s collision was the most costly as he lost all his points, his impetus in the title race and suffered a first blow to his previously glowing, and growing, reputation.
The Red Bull pair came together on lap 40 of the 58-laps race at the Istanbul Park circuit and were left blaming one another after Vettel was forced to retire and Webber made to settle for third after gifting McLaren their second one-two of the season.
“I was quicker. I dived down the inside. I had the corner,” claimed Vettel.
Webber said: “We were still away from the corner. He came to the right pretty fast and it looked like he turned pretty quickly right. We’ll probably have a difference of opinion until we go to our graves.”
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, who saw his men scrap safely for victory just a few minutes later, said he felt the blame lay with Vettel, but Horner unexpectedly suggested Webber should have left his team-mate more room.
“They should never have been where they were and they have cost the team a great deal of points. Seb managed to save an extra kilo of fuel, so he had one more lap of the optimum engine mode, if you like. But the large mistake was that not enough room was given,” Horner.said
Hamilton, 25, whose win on Sunday was his first of the year, sided with Webber.
“I am very surprised with the move Vettel did. It was a dangerous move because I tried to go on the outside of him. He turned towards me. There was no reason to turn right. He did the same thing with Mark and unfortunately he took himself out,” he added.
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