Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber gave the Milton Keynes based squad only its second ever podium finish this afternoon when he crossed the line at a rain affected European grand prix here at the Nurburgring in a brilliant third place. The Aussie racer held off a final charge from the Williams of Alex Wurz to secure the podium place, also only the second one in his Formula One career and he is thrilled to be able to bring this satisfaction o the team after all their efforts this season.

“This is a podium I can enjoy on a special day for us. The team deserves it after all the effort that has taken place behind the scenes. It’s great to get some points on the board, especially as David finished fifth as well. I didn’t have a good start and was on the back foot, the rain certainly came much earlier than we expected. We had to make a quick decision and went for the intermediates, but as the rain got much worse we were aquaplaning really badly. The FIA took the right decisions in bringing out the Safety Car and then suspending the race. I did a long run on the grooved tyres, which helped me pull away from the guys behind, even if I struggled a bit in the middle stint with the rears. I have to say I wasn’t too disappointed to see Kimi retire. Towards the end I began to think I had it in the bag, but I thought ‘oh god’ when I saw the rain coming again. In the final part I had massive vibration from the rear tyres and that’s why Alex got so close.”

Meanwhile, teammate David Coulthard, who took the teams first podium at Monaco last year, made it a double celebration after his heroic drive from twentieth on the grid to a strong points scoring fifth place. The Scot was looking good for a fourth place behind Webber, however his last pit stop sent him back behind the Williams racer….

“I’m very happy for the team. It’s obvious,” he said. “It’s obviously been a difficult start to the year with some reliability issues, but nonetheless to show the pace we did in this race was good and the calls we made on strategy were a credit to the team; the pit stops were great. After such a bad qualifying, it was only ever going to be a change of conditions like these that was going to give us a chance to move forward and we ended with a podium and a fifth place for me.”

“A fantastic team result today,” added Christian Horner. “Today was all about teamwork, the drivers, the work on the pit wall, the work in the pit stops, everyone did a fantastic job. I’m very, very pleased for Mark, after such rotten luck during the first half of the season he finally got a result he deserved. David had a fantastic recovery from a disappointing qualifying session, but the guys did their bit on the circuit today and the team in the pit lane, and I’m very proud of everybody, it’s a great result for the whole team.” FABRICE LOM, Renault Principal Engineer, Track Support: “We are delighted with today’s result. It’s a great moment for the whole team especially after the mixed feelings we had yesterday after qualifying. We had a strong package, the drivers did a fantastic job in the changing conditions and our strategy worked perfectly. It was a podium that we earned on merit. This result puts us in front of Toyota and helps us reduce the gap to Williams. I think everybody in the team will be pushing with renewed determination for the next race in Hungary.”