YEONGAM, SOUTH KOREA // "We win as a team, we lose as a team …" It is an age-old motor racing mantra and Christian Horner, the Red Bull-Renault's sporting director, recycled it in the Korean Grand Prix's immediate aftermath.
It was a race the team should have dominated, yet they came away empty-handed. Mark Webber failed to score for only the second time this season, crashing out soon after the race began in earnest, and for the first time this year the team failed to add to their tally in the world championship for constructors.
Their advantage over McLaren-Mercedes has been trimmed to 27 points.
"The accident was totally my fault," Webber said. "I got on the kerb at Turn 12 and my world went into slow motion. For a moment I thought I could catch the slide, but then the car got away …"
Sebastian Vettel, his teammate, bore no blame for his subsequent departure: he did not put a foot wrong all weekend, controlled the race from the front and had no prior warning that his engine was about to expire.
"It was a difficult race for everybody and I don't think there's any more I could have done," the German said.
Vettel completed only limited running during the weekend's practice sessions, to minimise damage to an engine that was being used for the last time (drivers are limited to eight per season, and receive a grid penalty if they exceed that).
The V8 units are expected to last about 2,000 kilometres and Vettel's had completed 1,600km when it detonated. Horner insists, however, that the German has enough spare engine life to complete the campaign without undue concern.
The Korean GP was as encouraging for Mercedes GP as it was disappointing for Red Bull.
Nico Rosberg was poised to challenge for a podium finish before Webber's damaged car spun across his bows, but Michael Schumacher delivered his best performance of the season.
He has twice previously finished fourth - but this one owed as much to his own zest as it did to others' lapses.
The move that wrested fifth place from Jenson Button, on lap 27, was reminiscent of vintage Schumacher. It helped that Mercedesused the rain-enforced stoppage to tune the suspension to the conditions, but he made good use of the team's astute strategy.
So long were the delays, and so many the safety car interruptions, that there were doubts the race would last its full distance.
The 55th and final lap was completed about 90 seconds before the two-hour time limit was reached - although the fading light was by then more of a pressing concern.
Shortly before his engine blew, Vettel had radioed in to say he was struggling to pick out his braking marker at Turn One - partly a product of the visor tint he was using - but Schumacher had slightly different concerns.
"He was becoming distracted by the bright lights on his dashboard," Ross Brawn, the team principal, said.
"He didn't know how to turn down the brightness, so we had to give him instructions over the radio."
