Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez will line up on the second row for the Miami Grand Prix, having finished qualifying third and fourth, respectively. Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner is looking forward to an interesting inaugural Miami race, as the team continue their battle at the front with Scuderia Ferrari.
Qualifying resulted in a tight field at the sharp end of the grid– Horner said that small imperfections put the team out of the running for pole position, leaving a dominant Ferrari to take the first and second positions.
“It was all about those fine margins today. It was looking positive for us after the first run, but then a small mistake for Max at turn four and that was it for him, and then Checo’s first sector wasn’t good for him, so we start from the second row tomorrow. Ferrari have done a very good job today so credit to them.”
Although the team wasn’t able to best the Italian outfit, Horner is pleased with Verstappen’s “recovery” after missing out on a substantial amount of running during the practice sessions due to reliability issues.
“Max has been on the back foot today, he’s down on laps on the other guys and still learning about the track so it’s a good recovery from him.”
Horner is optimistic about the team’s ability to challenge for the front spots at the Miami International Autodrome, as the RB18 and track features are expected to be conducive to overtaking. He also predicts that lack of long-runs in practice will make for a compelling race.
“We know both our cars have good straight-line speed and the DRS could be pretty powerful here tomorrow, and with all the support races the breaking zones should open up a bit, so there are a couple of places where we should be able to overtake. Strategy and pitstops will be crucial, as no one has really been able to do any long runs, it should be a fascinating contest tomorrow.”
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