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Horner finds saving grace in Azerbaijan after difficult day for Red Bull

15 September at 20:00

Sergio Perez looked to be on course to finish on the podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but his hopes of finishing in the top 3 in Grand Prix for the first time since China ended after he crashed out with Carlos Sainz. Moreover, Max Verstappen finished in P5, and McLaren now leads the constructors' standings as well. Christian Horner referred to the Azerbaijan weekend as a "frustrating" one, but he still found some positives.

In short, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix proved be a difficult one for Red Bull Racing.On the other hand, Christian Horner remained hopeful, he told GPblog among others. What was encouraging for the Briton is that Lando Norris barely managed to cut the gap to Verstappen in the drivers' standings. "I mean, if you look at it before the weekend, based on where we were in Monza, what is he [Lando Norris] taking? Three points off him," said the team principal.

"It's frustrating, particularly after where Lando qualified, that we didn't beat him today. But thankfully, he hasn't scored big points. But we've got to build on what we've learned already and there's still a lot of racing to do," Horner remained confident.

Horner very pleased with Perez

The British team principal was satisfied with Perez's performance, even as the Mexican race ended with a crash. "I thought he was super. I thought Checo had a very strong weekend, and he had great pace throughout that race. I mean, to sit on the tail of that for the entire Grand Prix distance, he was on the pace throughout the weekend. Just a great shame for him not to have capitalised with a podium, which has been costly in constructors' points and in crash damage."

This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen


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