Horner confident of Perez's recovery: "Was the same last week"

Helmut Marko said on Friday that Sergio Perez was struggling during Friday practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. Team boss Christian Horner agrees with his colleague and states that the Mexican needs to step it up a notch. He is confident he can do so.

"It was the same last week with Checo. And then he made a big jump in the third practice," Horner is quoted by Motorsport-Total.com. Max Verstappen's teammate then finished ninth in FP2, but then eventually managed to switch up, resulting in fifth place in qualifying.

Red Bull hopes for Perez

Red Bull's team is hoping Perez can qualify on the second row of the grid so that he can start putting pressure on Mercedes and actually play a role in the race strategy. Horner considers that realistic. "I am confident that he will be there on Saturday," said the British chief.

The third free practice session is scheduled for 11:00hrs. The drivers and teams then have another hour to find the right set-up and make the final preparations for the rest of the weekend. Qualifying on the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg will then take place at 14:00. In just over 60 minutes, the starting order for Sunday will be determined.