Sergio Perez and Christian Horner react to woeful qualifying calamity at F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Red Bull’s call to not complete a second run at the end of Q2, and a decision to bring only three sets of tyres into qualifying, cost Perez who m💜ust start from 💃11th.
The strategy from the cons𓃲tructorsꩲ’ champions - who have Max Verstappen starting from second in the race - was criticised.
The und☂er-pressure Perez ex🔯plained to Sky: “That was basically our strategy from the beginning.
“It’s obviously𒁏 a new track and it caught us out, unfortunately.
“It’s something𒀰 we will discuss internally to understand what happened.
“We were unlucky in Q1, m🅰anaged to get through. Plenty of things to analyse from that.”
Perez said about the temperature being crucial in the grand prix: “It will be an interesting race, there are a lot of things that can happen.♋ We will see.”
Red 🦩Bull team principal Christian Horner said about Perez’s bad day in qualifying: “He went a little early.
“We only took three sets of tyres into qualifying. To try and avoid getting cau🌃ght in traffic on the last lap.
“He did the lap a little early, and⭕ was a tenth short.”
Jenson Button reacted to that strategy: “The worry is a yellow 🅠flag, r🌳ight at the end.
“But I do꧑n’t know why they didn’t have morꦗe tyres.
“That was the issue, having just three sets🌠 in qualifying. That’s why they struggled.”
Danica Patrick said about Perez: “He tends to g꧂o out early i𓂃n qualifying. And it’s not his strong suit.
“So I feel lꦡike a different approach would have be꧟en good.
“And at a track 🌱like this, it just keeps getting faster. It was a mistake.”
Ferrari’s brilliant perform🤡ance in practice and qualifying in Las Vegas means they are perfectly set up to rip away another victory from Red Bull.
They a꧟re already the only other team to have won a𝓰 grand prix this year.
“What we saw yesterday, Ferrari were very quick over a lap,” Horner said.&nbဣsp;
“The characteristics of their car, they work the tyre harder, so we expected that to be honest. Well done to Charles, it makes for an interesting rac♒e tomorrow.”
Horner was asked if Verstappen can expect, as he usually does, tꦅo warm into the race before eventually dominating: “I think it ꧅will be different here.
“But it’s a track you can definitely over൲take on. It’s going to make it interesting.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports,ꦡ to football, to F1.
