“Lewis is looked probably the quickest he’s looked all year here”– Red Bull fears Lewis Hamilton’s pace in Turkey even with a grid penalty.
Lewis Hamilton was at his best in Turkey as he secured a pole finish for himself in Turkey that ensured him a P11 start for Sunday after serving the grid penalty.
This anyway benefitted Max Verstappen, as he got an elevation by one spot and will start the race from the front row alongside Valtteri Bottas. However, the biggest concern for Red Bull is Mercedes’ extreme pace in Istanbul.
The Silver Arrows pair seal P1-2 finish in qualifying, outclassing Red Bull in every sector. On the other hand, Verstappen finished P3, whereas Sergio Perez Perez P7, but both got a promotion for a spot above due to Hamilton’s penalty.
Therefore, Christian Horner is worried that Mercedes’ Sunday pace would threaten their interests. Bottas, who is now on the de-facto pole, also seemed impressive.
“The best route to beat Mercedes is to finish ahead of them. So we’re focused very much on our race, and trying to make sure we capitalise the maximum points of both drivers,” said Horner.
“Hopefully, we’ll be closer to them in the race than we were in qualifying today, we see that they’re very quick over a single lap, whether that’s sustainable over the whole race, we’ll see tomorrow.”
“Lewis is looked probably the quickest he’s looked all year here. The Mercedes is hooked up around here, it’s working well on this asphalt circuit and it’s gonna be coming through pretty quick.”
“So yeah, we’ve just got to focus on our own race, get the strategy right, reliability, all those factors and see how we pan out.”
All-nighter successful for Red Bull
Seeing Red Bull’s struggles on Friday, Horner revealed a significant number of his personnel would be working all night, and according to him, their efforts paid off.
“The guys have done a good recovery overnight, said Horner. “The whole engineering team trackside and back in the factory in Milton Keynes have done a strong job today to make the progress that we have, so hopefully, that puts us in better shape for tomorrow.”
