Christian Horner delivers positive Red Bull verdict after Australian Grand Prix qualifying

Christian Horner says that he is pleased with Red Bull’s performance in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, even if his team were pipped to pole position by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

The two RB18 cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez could only manage the second and third quickest lap times on Saturday, with Charles Leclerc popping his Prancing Horse on P1 with a time two tenths quicker than his nearest challenger.

Certainly, Ferrari are once again looking good but Red Bull are not far off and they appear quietly confident about their race pace for tomorrow, which is where it all matters.

That said, then, Horner cut a positive figure when speaking to Sky and reflecting on his team’s session:

“I’m still pretty happy with that. Second and third on the grid, the drivers are so close and both of them at different points looked like they might be able to nick the pole.

“For Max the lock-up cost him probably about three-tenths and that would have put him close to Charles’ time and Checo had a small mistake on his first lap and carried an extra tenth of fuel because he wanted to do three laps so I’m still happy with that on the front row and P3.

“It’s going to be tough with [Ferrari] tomorrow because we know they’ve got a very quick car but I still think we can race them and we’ll see how powerful these DRS zones are.”

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