Christian Horner felt both Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen got as much out of their RB18’s as they could during Qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday, even though both were beaten to pole position by Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
A refuelling issue for Pérez ahead of his final run in Q3 left him out of position on track and without a valuable tow down the lengthy start/finish straight at the Baku City Circuit, but despite this he was able to put in a lap good enough for second on the grid.
Verstappen had a more straightforward session but was unable to better third on the grid. However, Horner, the Team Principal of the Milton Keynes-based team, reckons it was a good performance from both drivers amid tricky conditions and in between red and yellow flags.
“It’s always tricky to navigate through the sessions here with plenty of incidents and yellow flags, but both drivers extracted every last bit out of the car in their Q3 runs,” said Horner.
“Checo had a small issue whilst refuelling before Q3 that caused him to be slightly out of sequence but again, a very strong, clean lap from him to put him second on the grid, with Max incredibly close behind.”
Horner believes Red Bull will be in the fight again with Ferrari on Sunday, with the long run pace of both drivers looking strong during free practice. He is expecting another exciting race in Baku, a year on from Pérez’s first victory for the team.
“Ferrari had a slight advantage over a single lap but we’re right up there in second and third on a track you can overtake on, so it should be an exciting race tomorrow,” he said.
