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Red Bull expecting third row position in qualifying

19:41, 06 Jul 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has acknowledged that his two drivers will most likely be starting from the third row of the grid, as the Bulls currently don't match the power of Ferrari and Mercedes in qualifying.

Red Bull have always relied on their terrific race pace, but their qualifying pace has been lacking for the last several years compared to their competition.

In FP2, that showed, as Daniel Ricciardo couldn't beat either Ferrari or Mercedes, and Max Verstappen couldn't even register a lap time, as he had parked his Red Bull in the wall before he'd even done a hot lap.

Horner, therefore, knows his place, and realises that his team will most likely be starting from the third row of the grid.

“Saturday is tough for us,” the Brit admitted to Speedcafe.com.

“This track now, you are flat out for such large parts of it.

“Copse is easy flat now, Turn 1 here is flat, I mean with DRS that’s going to be quite interesting in qualy.

And that's the weak point of Red Bull. They thrive on downforce-heavy tracks like Monaco, but when it comes to a track like Silverstone, where straight-line speed is of the utmost importance, they tend to struggle. In qualifying, at least.

“Such large portions that are full throttle that it’s just not playing to our strengths, especially when you’ve got a corner in there where you’ve got some scrub on the car, that’s where the more powerful engines are able to pull the car out of that.

“We’re probably staring down the barrel of a third row here, but in the race we’re always better on race day and I’m confident that can be the case again.”