Red Bull deny rift

RED Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has mounted a robust defence of his team on the eve of the British Grand Prix amid accusations of favouritism towards Sebastian Vettel.

Horner insisted there was neither "malice" nor "manipulation" behind the decision to remove an updated front wing from the car of Mark Webber and attach it to that of Vettel, who suffered a failure of the same component in practice yesterday morning.

The switch was made prior to yesterday afternoon's qualifying session at Silverstone, where Vettel claimed pole position for today's race by a little over a tenth of a second from his team-mate. A visibly angry Webber sat stony-faced throughout much of the post-qualifying press conference, his only comment on the matter a terse: "I think the team is happy with the result today."

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The incident has rekindled memories of the Turkish Grand Prix in May, when a collision between the two when dicing for the lead led to Vettel's elimination and cost Webber a likely victory.

The team has attempted to regroup from that flashpoint but yesterday's incident has the potential to re-open the rift.

But Horner insists his team remains committed to providing equal opportunities to both men.

"It is the first time we have been in a situation where we have only had one component, and I am sure that happens up and down the pit lane," said Horner.

"Obviously when you have two drivers running at the front, there is perhaps a bit more emotion attached to it. But if you take away the emotion and you look at the facts, it was an entirely logical thing to do.

"Unfortunately sometimes I have to make a difficult decision.

"Mark knows the way we operate as a team. He knows there was no malice behind it, there was no manipulation."

After blitzing to back-to-back wins in Spain and Monaco earlier this season, Webber's title charge has since faltered, the Australian managing a best finish of third place in the three races that have followed.

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His failure to finish the last round after a spectacular shunt saw Vettel, the winner in Valencia, move ahead of him in the title battle.

That result could prove the turning point in the season for Red Bull, with the team now seemingly prepared to throw their weight fully behind Vettel's title bid at the expense of Webber.

"Today we've based this on championship position, and on the performance in third practice," Horner continued.

"They were the two fairest criteria we could use.

"If we were looking to be unfair in any way, everything would be weighted towards Sebastian, and he would have had a spare front wing, but that wasn't the case."

Asked whether yesterday's events meant Vettel was now the outright number one in the team, Horner replied: "I don't think so.

"I think that you could see today that the performance between the guys was very, very close and very, very tight.

"Mark is a competitive guy, he's pushing hard. Nobody likes to be beaten by their team-mate, especially by such a close margin.

"Today we had to make a difficult decision, but tomorrow I will make the same decision because the team is bigger than any individual.

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"I don't think he was stitched up at all. If I'd have given it to Mark you've got the same situation in reverse."

With both drivers sure to be fired up for today's 52-lap race at Silverstone, Horner was forced to play down fears of another on-track incident. "They both drive for the team, are employed by Red Bull, and I'm sure they'll both do the best job they can for the team," he said.

Vettel faced an uncomfortable grilling on the matter in yesterday afternoon's press conference, but insisted he was happy to put his faith in the team.

"From the outside it's difficult to judge what's going on. We know what we're doing, I think," he said.

Away from the dramas at Red Bull, McLaren were left to reflect on a mixed display in qualifying for their home race.

The Woking-based team struggled for pace throughout practice and yesterday morning elected to remove their new exhaust-blown diffuser, which has not provided the expected boost to their performance.

The decision was partially successful, with Lewis Hamilton claiming fourth on the grid, but there was misery for Jenson Button who qualified 14th before going on to describe his car as "undriveable".

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso will line up third, while Nico Rosberg starts fifth for Mercedes with Renault's Robert Kubica sixth.

Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi has been dropped five places on the grid for impeding Williams' Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying and will start 20th.

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