Horner takes a BOLD SWIPE at McLaren following qualifying

Horner, Red Bull Racing, Silverstone — Photo: © LAT Images

Dutch Grand Prix

Horner takes a BOLD SWIPE at McLaren following qualifying

The Red Bull Team Principal believed that the British team would be closer to them

Luis Raya

Saturday 26 August 2023 20:57

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Christian Horner was left surprised over McLaren's lack of pace in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, admitting he thought the Woking outfit would put up a bigger challenge for pole position.

Verstappen clinched his eighth pole position of the season at his home race, in a qualifying session marked by incidents and off-track excursions. The Dutch driver managed to handle the pressure, and despite a few scares, he avoided major incidents and excelled in Q3.

Horner remarked that the atmosphere in the garage was tense, as there was a moment when it seemed like Verstappen might not make it past Q1.

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“The biggest wobble that we had throughout the whole of Qualifying was when he went straight on at turn one on his first lap in Q1," said the Red Bull team principal to Sky Sports F1.

"Then the next lap he got blocked and we hadn’t got a lap in. I was looking at this great big black cloud coming in, thinking ‘no, surely not, we just need to get one lap on the board.’ and thankfully the next lap he did [and] it was the first time I heard him slightly unsettled. It was just the temperature in the tyres just weren’t there yet."

Verstappen was five tenths of a second quicker than the second-placed Lando Norris

Likewise, the 49-year-old Brit saw McLaren as a threat to snatch the pole position, though they ended up being farther away than he anticipated.

“I thought in conditions like that, the McLaren seems to warm the tyres up pretty quickly and I thought that McLaren were going to be a lot closer than they were there because in these conditions, a damp track, you need to generate the temperature. I thought that Lando or Oscar, they might have stolen it. Then a whole bunch of others turned up as well and it was an interesting mix," he said.

Perez lacked Verstappen's confidence

While Verstappen secured the pole position, Sergio Perez could only manage seventh as he lacked the same confidence as the Dutch driver in the challenging conditions.

However, Perez wasn't the only one who struggled in the rain, as Horner believes Verstappen was the most dominant driver on the grid today.

“I’m sure of course he [Checo] is. What can you say in conditions like that. It's the same for everybody, you've just got to go out there and feel the grip and put a lap in and for whatever reason he hasn’t quite had the confidence that certainly Max has, but I don’t think anybody has had the confidence that Max has. Harder session for him, but there’s others around him that have struggled. I didn’t expect Oscar for example to be behind him. A little bit of a mixture behind us," said Horner.