Many words can describe a race weekend for many. For Red Bull? A rollercoaster surely has to be it’s only description in Japan.
2015 Japanese Grand Prix Review: Red Bull
After the early practice sessions albeit they were rain affected, both Red Bulls looked to have solid pace around the Suzuka circuit; a track that should help show off the RB11’s great chassis.
Heading into qualifying it was thought that Red Bull could contest maybe for the second behind the Mercedes. But once qualifying started and the power units were being turned up it was clear that the Renault powered Red Bull’s appeared to struggle against the others.
In the dying seconds of Q3 Daniil Kyvat came out of Degner two and headed towards the hairpin, he dropped the left side of the car on the wet astroturf and lost control hurtling his car into the barriers in spectacular fashion. Thankfully Daniil was alright after the incident, unfortunatly his car was a write off. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo managed to qualify in seventh which was the best the Red Bull car could manage.
The race was another story altogether. Daniil Kyvat had to start from the pit lane after the mechanics prepared a brand new car for him over night.
When the lights went out Ricciardo got a good start over Massa and Raikkonen ahead, but after heading into a closing wedge he collided with Massa and caused a puncture on his car. Heading back to pits Ricciardo was nearly lapped, but he got out in time and managed to stay on the lead lap. Kyvat unfortunatly struggled with brake and tyre issues all race long to not score any points.
It was one of the toughest races for Red Bull for many years; but we know they will keep toiling away to chase Williams down for fourth in the constructors standings.
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