David Coulthard thanked his team after he scored the 62nd podium of his Formula One career in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix. Starting 13th on the grid, Coulthard maximised a one-stop strategy to take third place and lift Red Bull to fourth place in the constructors’ standings.
“I’m delighted to get a podium for the team, they’ve had a lot of work on at the previous races and back at base,” said the Scot. “You can expect some unusual results here, so we fuelled it long; but we expected the incidents would occur on track, not in the pit lane. But, nonetheless, the strategy worked well and all credit to the engineers, mechanics and everyone back at Red Bull for all their hard work.”
Coulthard’s third place marked his first point-scoring finish of the year and his first podium appearance since the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix. On that occasion, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner leapt into a swimming pool in celebration. Horner was slightly more restrained this time around, but delighted nonetheless.
“A fantastic result for the team today and particularly for David after such a tough start to the year,” said Horner. “He kept his head down, had very good pace and the strategy worked out perfectly for a comfortable third place.”
In the second RB4, Mark Webber had a more difficult afternoon. The Australian out-qualified Coulthard with a tenth-place grid slot, but his two-stop strategy proved less effective against the race’s unpredictable events. He eventually recovered from a late spin to finish 12th.
“For Mark, following his accident yesterday the pace car came at exactly the wrong point for him, and he was badly compromised by Barrichello and Nakajima in the first part of the race,” added Horner. “He therefore couldn’t exploit the pace advantage that he had and spent all afternoon in traffic. But, for the team, a podium result here in Montreal is an excellent result.”
Red Bull now have 21 points, four more that their nearest rivals, Toyota.
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