Horner on Verstappen: 'Maybe that compromised qualifying'

Max Verstappen will start Sunday night's Saudi Arabia Grand Prix in fourth position. This gives him the difficult challenge of overtaking Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, but Christian Horner is confident that he will do well. He states this in conversation with Sky Sports.

Prior to qualifying, it was expected that Leclerc and Verstappen would once again battle with each other for pole position, but nothing was further from the truth. Perez showed an excellent lap during Q3 and secured himself the first starting position.

Red Bull Racing was obviously very pleased with Perez's performance, but at the same time worried about Verstappen. Although the reigning world champion has set better qualifying times in the past, Horner is not at all worried about Sunday night's race.

"He's in the fight, we've focused our car to be good in race, maybe that compromised qualifying," stated the team boss, who hopes the Austrian racing stable can once again fight with Ferrari for victory. "His race runs have been immense hopefully we can fight Ferrari hard."