Christian Horner experienced extreme highs and lows during qualifying today, with Max Verstappen claiming pole position and Sergio Perez crashing into a barrier in Q2. However, the Red Bull team boss is happy with the performance of his World Champion and is hopeful of a strong drive from his Mexican driver in the race tomorrow.
"It was a very impressive qualifying from Max today and despite the conditions, he was on top of the circuit through all three sessions," he stated in a press release from Red Bull this evening, adding "with the track drying out and ramping up like that towards the end it can be very tricky to make sure you get the best time in the bag, so it was a good job by the whole team to make sure we finished on pole."
Horner hopeful of points for Perez
Despite finishing 13th and having a lot of work to do tomorrow, Perez is still capable of a points finish in Horner's eyes and it's something that he highlighted whilst explaining the issues the driver dealt with whilst being lodged under the barrier at turn four. "It was unfortunate for Checo, I think he just misjudged his breaking and ended up in the barrier. The car was wedged under the barriers and he just couldn’t reverse out to get started again, but this is a track you can overtake on, so hopefully, he can secure the team some solid points."
Attack from Alonso not a surprise to Red Bull
Horner also went on to praise the work of Fernando Alonso in qualifying. The Spaniard qualified behind Verstappen, however, the Red Bull team boss has informed his driver of the small task he needs to complete to have a strong start to tomorrow's race, finishing by saying, "it was a fantastic qualifying from Fernando and I’m sure he’s going to be motivated for tomorrow, but Max has just got to focus on a clean start, getting ahead into the first corner and then pushing on. We are expecting a dry day tomorrow, so hopefully, it should be a good race."