Formula One news

Red Bulls upstaged by Toro Rossos

Red Bull Racing drivers Mark Webber and David Coulthard missed out on points in the Belgian Grand Prix as they finished ninth and eleventh, being upstaged by Toro Rosso drivers Vettel and Bourdais who finished fifth and seventh.

"The first few laps were quite tricky due to the conditions, but our start was okay," said Webber. "I was running a bit short and when doing that it helps to have a clear track, but I didn't. I lost some time behind Bourdais, who was a bit heavier, but we were still in a reasonable position. Then I got hit by Heikki (Kovalainen) and lost some time. It hurt our strategy, which was quite aggressive. The car felt best in the last stint on the prime tyres. It's a shame we didn't get any points today, the guys had put a lot of effort in."

David Coulthard commented, "I got held up a lot behind the Hondas at the start and it was hard to make up positions from there. We have poor drivability. The changeable conditions made things interesting at the end, we could probably have changed to intermediate tyres one lap earlier." 

Team boss Christian Horner added, "A busy afternoon for the drivers and the pit crew. Mark was unlucky in the first stint of the race when he got hit following a very optimistic move by Kovalainen, which cost him a lot of time and track position. In the final laps we gambled to split the cars and left Mark on dry tyres and put David on intermediates. David had a poor start and we had elected to run a one stop strategy, anticipating variable conditions which arrived with three laps to go. Today's result doesn't represent the hard work that the team is putting in at the moment, but I'm sure our luck will change soon."

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