Christian Horner hailed a ‘phenomenal’ Qualifying performance for his Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team on Saturday after seeing Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen lock out the front row of the grid for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit has proved to be a competitive one for Red Bull, with Verstappen finishing fastest in all three practice sessions ahead of the Qualifying session, and after the first run in Q3, it appeared the Dutchman would become Formula 1’s youngest ever polesitter.
However, a ‘perfect’ lap from team-mate Ricciardo denied him this, with the Australian instead securing his third career pole position, while Horner was delighted to see Red Bull lock out the front row of a Formula 1 grid for the first time since the 2013 United States Grand Prix, and for the first time in the turbo hybrid era.
“Amazing! An incredible last lap from Daniel which really seemed to come from nowhere,” said Horner. “On the last run to be able to string together a perfect lap was a mighty performance.
“Another great lap from Max, who has looked so competitive all weekend meant we locked out the front row for the first time since Austin 2013, a phenomenal team performance.”
Horner says it is now important to convert this positive Qualifying result into a good number of points on Sunday, especially as so much hard work has been done to put them into such a strong position for the race.
“Our priority now has to be to try and convert these fantastic grid positions into a haul of points tomorrow,” added Horner. “The Team has worked very hard for this so it is crucial that we now make the most of it.”
