31/07/2005
NEWS STORY
It was a case of Over and Out for Red Bull Racing at the Hungarian Grand Prix today. Literally. Entering the first corner, Christian Klien's RB1 launched into the air when Jacques Villeneuve's front left tyre struck the Austrian's right rear wheel. After completing a mid-air roll, Christian's car came to land off the track and his race was over before it had even begun. On the same lap, Christian's team-mate David Coulthard hit the front wing of Fernando Alonso's Renault, which had come detached and was lying on the track. Running amid a closely- packed group of cars, the Scot was unable to avoid the unsighted debris, spun off the track and retired with a front puncture and damaged suspension. Neither driver was hurt in either incident, but that was it for Red Bull Racing in the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix.
A silver lining for David was that he became Britain's most experienced Formula One driver today, by notching up his 188th start. That's one more than former world champion Nigel Mansell.
David Coulthard: A double whammy and a bad day for Red Bull Racing. I now know that I hit the nose of a Renault, but at the time I didn't see anything until it was too late. I had just enough time to react, but not nearly enough to get out of the way, so it smashed the front corner of my car. I couldn't distinguish the shape of the debris and was going too fast to react to it. I was lucky not to have had a bigger accident really, debris on the track is very dangerous and as soon as a car hits something like a wing, then it's likely that you're going to get a puncture. Finishing like this is very frustrating, not only because it means no points in this race, but also means a bad start for the next one. I'm very disappointed for both Christian and myself.
Christian Klien: It all happened so quickly, A Sauber and Williams were behind me, one of them hit my car on the first corner and I rolled mid-air. I came to land on four wheels and luckily nothing happened, but that was not a good feeling. It was not to be this weekend and sadly this was not my race. It's a shame as I think we had a pretty good strategy set up for the race.
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: A pretty disastrous first lap for the team with both drivers going out. Christian had a spectacular looking incident at the first Turn where he rolled his car when Jacques Villeneuve put his front left tyre inside Christian's right rear. Looking at David's accident, he stood absolutely no chance of avoiding the front wing of Fernando Alonso's car simply because it was unsighted by him as all the cars were going around it. The main thing is that both drivers got out of their cars okay with no injuries, but obviously it's extremely frustrating. We had a good car and strategy for this afternoon, so it's disappointing it ended the way it did.