Until Lap 40, Webber was clearly benefiting from upper hand on his teammate, as he was leading the race without any major issues. At that point however, he was asked from the pits to save fuel, and within a couple of laps Vettel was right behind him, eager to grab the lead.
Although a lot has been said and written about Red Bull's favoritism over Vettel – especially after the entire team defended the German after the incident – team principal Christian Horner now revealed that it was the Australian driver who initially asked the team, via radio, to tell Vettel to ease his pace.
“It was quite clear that with the speed advantage the McLarens had on the straight, it was impossible to fall back into them. Mark had requested the lap before to ask Sebastian to back off a bit. There was no way you could do that because of the McLarens being right there,” said Horner in an interview with Autosport.
“It looked like Mark started to struggle with the rear tires a bit more - that's what it looked like on the pit wall," said Horner. "And Sebastian, between laps 38 and 39, really closed up rapidly to the back of Mark, obviously got a run on him on lap 40 and they both found themselves in a situation they didn't want to be in.”
Additionally, Horner emphasized the importance of having two mature drivers handle this type of situation, and admitted his confidence that the relationship between the two will not change dramatically.
“They are probably not going to be down the pub for a drink together, but they will continue to work professionally in the manner that they have done in the forthcoming races. They work for the team at the end of the day and they know what the rules are,” added the British manager.
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