“I mean look with Lewis’ pace”– Christian Horner thinks Lewis Hamilton can win this game as his straight-line speed worries him

Tanish Chachra | 14/11/2021
"Mercedes have won over 80% races during hybrid era" - Red Bull boss Christian Horner admits Max Verstappen winning the title would eclipse their V8 era success story

Christian Horner believes that Lewis Hamilton can win the race as his straight-line speed in Interlagos was incredible on Saturday.

Lewis Hamilton is set to chase Max Verstappen from his P10 start at Interlagos. And his sprint race performance does prove that the Briton can indeed do it.

Christian Horner holds the same belief. After seeing Hamilton’s performance in the sprint race, Horner is afraid of his straight-line speed and thinks that the reigning champion can win in Brazil.

“I mean look with Lewis’ pace that he had today, he can win this race tomorrow,” Horner said. “It will be very hard to defend against him with that kind of pace. We’ve got to get our head down, do the best job we can and go from there.”

“We can only control what we do. We’re going to go for it and we’re on the front row. We’ve got those two points today that are vital.”

Also read:  Toto Wolff vows to watch every Red Bull video to make their life difficult after DRS controversy in Brazil

Not surprised with Lewis Hamilton pole in qualifying

Not just the sprint race, the qualifying was also led by Mercedes. Though, this time instead of Valtteri Bottas, it was Hamilton on the top. But the DRS infringement issue scrapped his pole and promoted Verstappen for the sprint race qualifying.

But Hamilton was four-tenths of a second above the Dutch sensation in the Friday’s qualifying standings. And Horner is not a little bit surprised with Mercedes’ pace prowess.

“Well, to be honest, it’s no real surprise because we saw it yesterday. Lewis’ straight-line speed is just mind-boggling,” he added. “For us, I think losing the start.

“They took the gamble on the soft tyres, we obviously started on the medium and had a bit of an issue with the gear sync [with Verstappen]. Still front row here, two more points. We will take that and it’s a different race tomorrow, much hotter.”

Also read: Max Verstappen jokes about paying his fine for touching Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Christian Horner Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Red Bull

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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