Horner remains hopeful in Mexico: 'Verstappen starts on the clean side'

Although Red Bull Racing had a disappointing qualifying session with Max Verstappen finishing in P3 and Sergio Perez in P4, team principal Christian Horner expects them to make up places on the grid and challenge Mercedes.

"You've still got Valtteri ahead of Lewis. And Lewis is on the dirty side [of the grid], Max is on the clean side," Horner explained in conversation with Sky Sports. "It's all going to be about where they are after the first lap and then of course the strategy will come into play."

On Friday, Red Bull were fastest in free practice, but that speed ultimately failed to translate into qualifying. Yet Horner believes they will find that pace in the race."We believe we should have a quick race car here. I think we can still have a good race."

Surely the big surprise with Mercedes was their speed on the straight. In previous years they had problems with the altitude of Mexico, which meant that the turbo didn't have enough oxygen to work properly. Those problems seem to be solved now, Horner has noticed. "We could see yesterday they've addressed the engines issues they had previously. They've got good straight-line speed here, so it's going to be tough," said the Red Bull team principal.