Red Bull pressured to peform in qualifying

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes Red Bull drivers are forced to pull out all the stops in qualifying to make up for the Renault engine's weakness.

Renault is still trailing Mercedes and Ferrari in the engine department, but in addition to its power deficit the French power unit also lacks the specific engine modes that its rivals resort to in Q3.

Horner is certain that without the weakness, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen would be constantly be challenging for wins.

"I think the key thing for us is trying to increase competitiveness on a Saturday afternoon, because grid position is so important," Horner said.

"It puts too much pressure on the drivers in Q3, because they're having to find even more performance, because we don't have the ability to go with our rivals' engine modes.