Christian Horner after Hungarian GP qualifying: 'Got to drive an attacking race'

Published on 31 July 2021 by Bryan van Berlo

Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing, reflects after today’s qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix: “Mercedes have been quick all weekend here but Max’s time in Q2 looked pretty impressive. In Q3 he wasn’t completely happy with the balance of the car, so third was as good as we had today. Locking out the second row with Max and Checo gives us options and we have a different strategy from Mercedes ahead which is going to make it an exciting race.”

“We couldn’t do the same time as Lewis did on the medium and we felt that maybe tactically it was better to take a different route. We prefer the soft tyre for the start and we’ve got to drive an attacking race as we know how hard it is to overtake around here which means strategy is going to be crucial. Lewis had a hell of a first Q3 lap in the bank and he just didn’t want to give our cars any advantage on the final out lap, which unfortunately meant Checo lost out on a second Q3 run. It was just a bit of gamesmanship. It’s his right to do that as he had track position and we don’t have an issue, it’s all about tomorrow now.”

“We know Silverstone and Budapest are very much Mercedes strongholds. If you look at their performances last year we were a second off at Silverstone and more than that here so we take encouragement that we are as close as we are. It’s different strategies, it’s different grip levels, we’ve got to get a good start and take the fight to them tomorrow. It’s a long second half of this championship and it’s going to be well worth watching.”

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