After the boredom of Bahrain, Formula One went to Australia in search of a bit of drama, and got it by the bucket load. We round up key quotes from Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and the rest of the pit lane...
McLaren spoke about how fast the RB6 is…
“The Red Bull is ridiculously faster than anyone else's car."
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes
“The last time I looked at the Constructors’ Championship, we were not leading it.”
Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing
Ron Dennis believed that Red Bull’s problems in Bahrain were caused by having a fuel tank that’s too small…
“I guess the problem with age is that your hearing tends to fail you a little bit and perhaps Ron didn’t hear the misfire that was there and probably didn’t see the fact that the other car also finished the race without any issues at all.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing
The rookies seemed to be settling down quite well…
"Surprises in Bahrain? Not really… It was a racing weekend like it was in GP2. It was just Formula One."
Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Lewis Hamilton suggested that Mark Webber might be considering retirement…
"I don't know how long he plans to stay in Formula One but I get the sense he wants to finish on top and perhaps call it a day,"
Lewis Hamilton
“I’ve no intention at all of retiring, give or take whatever season I have. That’s Lewis’s opinion and he’s free to have that. I don’t have a big problem with what he’s said. I’m very happy at the moment.”
Mark Webber
Hamilton couldn’t stay out of the news...
"This evening, I was driving in an over-exuberant manner and, as a result, was stopped by the police. What I did was silly, and I want to apologise for it."
Lewis Hamilton
Sebastian Vettel just pipped Mark to pole position...
“Just a bee’s dick off pole!”
Mark Webber
“It’s a little bit of revenge – He was on pole in Germany!"
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing
“What’s it like starting second? Well, it’s the second best place to start from.”
Mark Webber
Seb led the race comfortably, then suffered a drive failure...
“It breaks my balls not to get the win.”
Sebastian Vettel
It set Jenson Button free to win his first race for McLaren...
“A grand prix win in a McLaren. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Right now, I just want to run around and scream. It’s just the most amazing experience.”
Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes
And Robert Kubica did a typical gutsy job for an unexpected second place...
"We know there is still a long way to go before we are really competitive with the fastest teams, but this is a brilliant boost for everybody at Renault."
Robert Kubica, Renault
Hamilton was moaning about his pit strategy...
“I don't know why I was pulled in. That is what lost us at least a one-two today.”
Lewis Hamilton
“With the information we had at the time, given where Lewis was, we felt that it was the right call.”
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren-Mercedes
And also about being punted off by Webber…
“It was disappointing to taken out by Mark Webber, but I hear he apologised for it after the race so I appreciate that. I’m happy with the job I did – I drove my heart out today and the car felt good.”
Lewis Hamilton
“I apologise to Lewis about that. I lost all down-force in the front of the car when I got close to them, the car lifted and I slid into the back of him.”
Mark Webber
Meanwhile Sébastien Buemi was on the wrong end of another wild moment from Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi...
“The start wasn’t so good, but I didn’t lose any positions. Then I was involved in somebody else’s accident. I was hit from behind, which was a shame because this was a race to get points in.”
Sébastien Buemi, Scuderia Toro Rosso
But Jaime Alguersuari kept going, and had a ding-dong battle with Michael Schumacher for most of the race...
“I got to have a whole race against Michael Schumacher – which was really nice! I was under a lot of pressure but I kept him behind until seven or eight laps from the end. Then I made one tiny mistake and he passed me. That mistake cost me a point.”
Jaime Alguersuari, Scuderia Toro Rosso
“Jaime learned an interesting lesson from Michael Schumacher, in that if you lose concentration for just one tenth of a second, he will pass you.”
Franz Tost, Scuderia Toro Rosso
And suddenly, no one thinks Formula One is boring any more…
“This was a fantastic and very interesting Formula One race and a lesson to those who seem to want to change the rules of the sport every five minutes.”
Franz Tost
Red Bull Racing packed up in a bad mood; they should have won both races so far this year, and haven’t won either...
“Ultimately an extremely disappointing day… Coming away with ninth place (Mark) after starting the race with two cars at the front of the grid is massively disappointing.”
Christian Horner
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