On Saturday, Red Bull was tipped to bag pole as Mercedes was sixth-tenth of a second behind the former in FP3. But the qualifying results stunned Helmut Marko.
Even before teams arrived in Mexico, Red Bull was touted as the favourites to win the race. Until the early part of Saturday, things were also going in their way, but in Qualifying, Mercedes stunned Red Bull.
However, the last attempt for Red Bull to outpace Mercedes were folded when Yuki Tsunoda came in their way. Annoyed by Mercedes locking the front-row, Helmut Marko claims Mercedes played a nice bluff this weekend.
Nothing I can do more than that…
— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) November 6, 2021
“That was a very good bluff from Mercedes,” grumbled Marko to Red Bull’s ServusTV after the qualifying session.
Also read: F1 driver warns against 25 races long calendar
Red Bull chief believes Yuki Tsunoda incident might cost the race
Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner, annoyed by the Tsunoda incident, said that he has just been Tsunodaed. Meanwhile, marko, careful with his words, feel that winning on Sunday is now tough because of that hindrance.
“I think we would have come very close or maybe in between,” Marko said. “But the superiority that came [at] first is gone. It will be a very difficult race.”
Marko believes that Red Bull is still a better side in Mexico, but the Silver Arrows straight-line advantage may exploit them with the absence of pole position.
Red Bull can also hope for a mishap by Mercedes in the tricky turn 1 of Mexico, which might give them an advantage. “Let’s see the start and how everything will go ahead,” Marko said.
On the other hand, Verstappen last night even claimed that starting from p3 is still better than a P2 start. So, probably the Milton-Keynes-based outfit is eyeing for an aggressive start, so that they can tail their rivals, in hope of overtaking them quickly.
Also read: WATCH Sebastian Vettel candidly answer fans’ questions on the sidelines of the Mexico Grand Prix
