Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner says that both drivers extracted the maximum out of the cars and believes the team can have a strong Japanese Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s downfall was the lack of straight line speed which meant they lagged behind the Ferrari and Mercedes during the qualifying session, with sector three in particular affecting both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.
“An extremely tight qualifying where both drivers extracted the maximum from the car,” said Horner. “They were very competitive in Sector 1 today, unfortunately we lost a bit of time in Sector 3 on some of the more power dominated areas of the track.”
The long run pace was extremely competitive for the Red Bull which could boast well for the battle with Ferrari and Mercedes.
“We qualified in fifth and sixth, which will become fourth and fifth tomorrow, and hopefully we can take the good race pace we had in free practice into the Grand Prix.”
After a brilliant win in Malaysia last weekend, Red Bull came into Japan hoping to continue their momentum but the lack of horsepower left them on third row of the grid behind the two Ferrari’s, but heading into the race, the team should be looking to challenge for a podium and if the Mercedes trip over each, Red Bull should be there to capitalise on it.
