Christian Horner said seeing Daniel Ricciardo qualify within four-tenths of a second of pole position was a good result for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, but he rued the crash by Max Verstappen that will see the Dutchman start fifteenth.
Ricciardo qualified fifth but will start fourth on the grid after Lewis Hamilton takes his penalty, with his lap of 1:28.398s just 0.440 seconds off the pole time set by Sebastian Vettel.
However, Verstappen crashed out during the first phase of Qualifying doing a second data-gathering run despite his first run having comfortably been quick enough to advance through, but the damage caused by hitting the outside wall at turn three ended his session there and then, and team principal Horner says they will look into the cause.
“After a Qualifying session with plenty of action, it’s interesting to see the top five cars qualify within four tenths of each other,” said Horner. “Daniel got the best out of the car today to finish in fifth, which will become fourth on the grid with the penalty for Lewis.
“Max who was doing another lap in Q1 gathering information on engine settings unfortunately lost the rear, the reasons for which we will have to look at, but frustratingly it ended his Qualifying early.
“However, the damage is superficial and hopefully from 15th on the grid he will put his head down and make some progress through the field as our race pace has looked encouraging here. It is set up to be an exciting race tomorrow.”