Teams Reflect on European Grand Prix

The European Grand Prix at Valencia was a very weird race. Sebastian Vettel was driving away with the lead with a 20 second lead at one point, and then the car just broke down. Romain Grosjean was doing extremely well in second place, and then his Lotus'Lotus E20United Kingdom, 2012 > 201213 photos
alternator stopped working. Lewis Hamilton was a lap away from a podium finish until Pastor Maldonado crashed into him. Even qualifying was very odd with Mark Webber having DRS issues that left him in Q1. If one of those events had happened in a race, it would have given pundits a week of things to talk about, but instead they all came in one race. 

Kimi Raikkonen was unhappy with his second place result. He says that he was blocked by Pastor Maldonado in the first corner and lost several places.

"We didn't have speed today to challenge for the win. In the end second place is OK but not what we wanted. We got a good start but I got blocked by Maldonado at the first right-hander and lost quite a few places because of that so I was a bit behind at that point," said Raikkonen. 

Despite winning, Ferrari was also unhappy with its result. Granted, Felipe Massa finished in 16th behind Charles Pic in a MarussiaMaRussiaRussian Federation, 2007 > present4 models
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-Cosworth, but Fernando Alonso gained 10 places to win.

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Team Principal Stefano Domenicali gives more credit to Alonso than the car. 

"The car is at another level from what we were seeing at the beginning of the season, but it is not yet the car that is the quickest. In my view Red BullRed BullAustria, 2004 > present12 models
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, or the Red Bull that I have seen this weekend, is the quickest in terms of pure performance. In the race it was leading comfortably, the pace was very strong. That is something that we need to look at," said Domenicali. 

He says that the team is still aiming for the championship at the end of November and is making reliability a key to the future. 

Red Bull oddly is the one team that is not upset with its performance because of Vettel's dominant performance in the first half of the race. The team's upgrades to the car made it very fast. 

"It was very, very frustrating, but the comfort we must take out of Seb's performance was that he was in a class of his own today and he was in complete control. He had tremendous pace, and we leave Valencia knowing that we have a quick car. Mark very much demonstrated that, with his recovery from 19th on the grid to fourth on the road,"  said Red Bull Team Manager Christian Horner. 

*Update: Maldonado and Vergne Receive Penalties* Alonso Takes Unique Victory i...

Source: Autosport (1,2,3)