The Austrian GP weekend got underway with a cracker of a qualifying session on Friday at the Red Bull Ring. The home crowd went berserk as Max Verstappen came home to bag his fourth consecutive pole for the team. However, the highlight of the day was the two Ferraris making it two the top three for the first time since Japan 2022. Meanwhile, it was another disappointing day for Sergio Perez as he had his fourth consecutive Q2 elimination after a dismal outing.
Now, it seems almost incomprehensible to the F1 juggernaut how can a driver of Perez’s caliber fail on the trout, that too in a Red Bull. The Mexican hasn’t qualified in Q3 since Monaco, and it is the longest for a Red Bull out of Q3 since 2008. On Friday, Checo, amongst many other drivers, saw their lap times deleted after they fell foul of multiple track limit offenses. This inadvertently led to Checo not crossing the Q2 barrier in Austria.
A lot has been said and done about the same. After the race, even Max Verstappen remarked that the number of lap times deleted almost made it look like a bunch of amateurs were driving. However, in a recent reaction, team boss Christian Horner isn’t too pleased with Perez’s performance no matter what excuse. Notably, even Verstappen had his lap time deleted in Q1 and Q2 but he eventually landed on pole while Checo could only manage P15.
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Stay in the While Lines: Christian Horner to Sergio Perez
Perez started off this season with a banger. He won 2 out of the first four races closing in on Max for the championship battle. Moreover, he looked totally in sync with the car, giving fans the hope for a title fight that might go down to the wire, however, that didn’t turn out to be the case. Since Monaco, Max has won every race while Perez hasn’t even been on the podium.
The Mexican driver is in a current deficit of 69 points to Verstappen in the drivers’ standing. Talking to Sky Sports F1, Christian Horner gave his reaction to the disappointing results from Perez, and it is a reaction that a lot of fans might adhere to. “He’s got the pace today, he’s got a car that was easily capable of being on the first or second row, he was matching Max’s times, stay in the white lines,” said Horner.
“Just hugely frustrating because he could have he could have been there, he could have done it. That’s the frustration. It’s fantastic that we got the pole, but it feels not complete,” added the team boss.
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