“It’s his right to do that”– Christian Horner is not furious at Lewis Hamilton for preventing a clear run for his ace driver Max Verstappen.
Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner is not furious with Lewis Hamilton slowing down Max Verstappen at the end of the pitlane, while both were set to start their Q3 run.
Lewis Hamilton slowing down Max Verstappen reminded me of a similar incident between a rookie and a 2-time champion from a few years ago. #HungarianGP #f1 #dejavu pic.twitter.com/BGVTCCUoe8
— The Circus (@Circus_F1comic) July 31, 2021
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It was expected that the Red Bull’s camp would have a few words to express the situation, but neither Verstappen entertained the media with it during the post-qualification interview, nor Horner had any qualms about it.
“Lewis has got a hell of a lap in the bank, and then obviously he’s just backing things up, up, up, and he doesn’t want to give obviously our cars a clean run,” Horner said. “But it’s his right to do that. He’s got the track position. We haven’t got a major issue. It’s all about tomorrow now.
Asked if Red Bull would have done the same the other way around, Horner replied: “I think we have probably focused more on the preparation of our tyre because you can see his lap time was nowhere near his [best] qualifying time.
“He was obviously more interested in what was going on behind. But that’s part of the game.”
Unlucky Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez was denied his last flying lap in the Q3 as he missed the flag and had to settle with a P4 start from tomorrow, which gives him a second-row start along with his teammate Verstappen.
“Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and that meant that I basically lost my final attempt,” said Perez. “I think I had a good amount of time left in the car.”
“We did some adjustments, and here is a place where if you get one corner right, there’s just plenty of lap time in it because there are so many corners.
“It’s a big shame. At the end, we have a good starting position for tomorrow. But yeah, we knew Mercedes was going to be very strong. So I really hope tomorrow we are able to put a lot of pressure onto them.”
