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 must start from 11th.
The strategy from the construꦯctors’ champions - who have Max Verstappen starting from second in the race - 💎was criticised.
The under-pressure Perez explained to Sky: “That was basically our strategy from♎ the begi🥃nning.
“It’s obviously a new track and it caught us out, unfortunately.&✅nbsp;
“It’sꩲ something we will discuss inte൲rnally to understand what happened.
“We were unlucky ♍in Q1, managed to get throug𒁃h. Plenty of things to analyse from that.”
Perez said about the temperatꦦure 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 abo🙈ut 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 caught in traffic on the last lap.
“He didဣ the lap a little early, and was ﷽a tenth short.”
Jenson Button reacted to that strategy: “The worry is a yellow flag, ri👍ght at the end.
“But I don’t 🅠know why they didn’t have more tyres.
“That was the issue, 🌠having just three sets in qualif🧸ying. That’s why they struggled.”
Danica Pa🦹trick🐼 said about Perez: “He tends to go out early in qualifying. And it’s not his strong suit.
“So I feel like a different approac꧒h would have been good.
“And at a track like this, it just keeps gettinꦏg faster. It was ꦆa mistake.”
Ferrari’s brilliant p൲erformance in practice and qualifying in Las Vegas means they are perfectly set up to rip away another victory from Red Bull.
They are already the only other team to have won a grand prix tꦛhis year.
“What we saw yesterday, Ferrari were very qui🎶ck over a lap,” ꦺHorner said.
“The characteristics of t𓆉heir car, they work the tyre ꧃harder, so we expected that to be honest. Well done to Charles, it makes for an interesting race tomorrow.”
Horner was asked if Verstappen can expect, as he usually does, to warm into the race before eventual꧃ly dominating: “I think it will be different here.
“But it’s a track you can de✤finitely overtake on. It’s going to make it interes🎶ting.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports f🌺or a decade covering everything from American sports, to foo🏅tball, to F1.
