Perez was sent out ahead of Verstappen in Q2 and Q3 to provide the championship leader with a tow, and his aid ultimately proved crucial to the Dutchman securing third behind the 𒆙two Mercedes drivers.

Verstappen ended up foꩲur-tenths off the pace of Valtteri Bottas as Red Bull struggled toꦍ match its main rival at Monza but he was able to narrowly pip the McLaren duo Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo by just 0.023s.

Having effectively sacrificed his own result, Perez finished s🌊ix tenths down on Verstappen and will line-up for Satu🧜rday’s sprint race from ninth on the grid.

"I have to say, Checo played a key role 🌱as a team player t🥂oday to give his team-mate a tow and help Max get into that position, because I think we were vulnerable to the McLarens,” Horner told Sky Sports.

"Max up there in P3, Checo probably sacrificed half a second. So, he should have been higher than where he is, but we wer⛎e pretty happy with that result.

"To be honest, I think based on what the defic🤪it was last year, we pretty much halved that gap.”

Horner admitted Perez almost failed to progress to Q3 altogether due to 🐲the assistance he was giving Verstappen in Q2.

“He was tumbling down the order,” Horner added𓂃. “So it was💦 a little bit nip and tuck in Q2, but thankfully he’d just done enough.”

Perez said he hopes Red Bull’s set-up choice wil🎐l play dividends and “pay us back” on Sunday.

“We were stru𓂃ggling there, we're really low on downforce,” T🔯he Mexican explained.

"Just trying to optimise the Sunday, so hopefully that can pay us back and then tomorrow in the sprint raceܫ, hopefully we can make up some positions and come through the field. The long run looks promising.

"The sprint will be quite hard, because it will be a DRS train very early on, but i🌱t's a long race and a lot of things can happen tomorrow."