Horner buzzing: "Perez is on fire, massive performance from Max!"
F1 News
Christian Horner piles the praise on both of his drivers after qualifying for the United States Grand Prix. Horner saw Verstappen secure pole position and Sergio Perez clinch a place on the second row of the grid. Both drivers surround Mercedes rival, Lewis Hamilton, on the grid.
Two against One
For so long, Verstappen has been left on his own to fight the two Mercedes cars. But this weekend, Perez achieved one of his best results in qualifying and almost ended up clinching pole position. To add to it, Valtteri Bottas takes another grid penalty so leaves teammate Hamilton alone to fight Red Bull. Horner heaps on the praise after the session.
"Checo is on fire! He's been pretty happy with the car. I thought he was going to get his first pole position! A little bit of rain at the end maybe cost him a little bit. Another massive performance from Max, keeping his head, was phenomenal," Horner told Sky Sports.
"We know Checo races so well. Qualifying has been his struggle this year but he's right there. It's the first time we've got two cars against one. It's the first time in the hybrid era someone other than Mercedes is on pole here so another milestone for us."
Improving the car
Before the session, Red Bull mechanics worked on the cars to fix a hairline crack. They've also managed to significantly improve the cars from the first free practice session onwards. The Red Bull boss hopes for a clean start with the title rivals starting alongside each other. He predicts a grandstand start.
"I don't know if Max hit something because it was quite a crack. We got permission to beef it up a little bit on both cars. I think we improved the car and it's tough to follow here so you want to lead into turn one. It'll be a grandstand start into turn one. It's tough to follow, if we get a clean sector one you hope by turn 11 you've got a bit of a gap," Horner added.