2021 Brazilian GP : Post-Friday Qualifying reactions from Verstappen and Checo

Red Bull had a solid qualifying outing on Friday at Interlagos, Max Verstappen qualified in P2 while Sergio Perez comes home in P4.

With five-place grid penalty handed to Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen needs to just focus on his own race during 24 lap Sprint.

Max Verstappen (P2)

“I’m happy to be second, that’s a good position to start from in tomorrow’s sprint race. I always want to be closer but sometimes you have to be realistic. Mercedes have taken a new engine so naturally they have more power this weekend, so for me it’s not a big shock that they are ahead.

There are not many points to gain tomorrow in the sprint race, so I hope we have a good start and we’ll see what happens from there. Of course, the most important race is on Sunday and I think it’s going to be a lot warmer which will change the behaviour of the car as well, so we’ll see.”

Sergio Perez (P4)

“It was a bit tricky today, especially in Q1 having to use two sets of tyres, so we started on the wrong foot in qualifying, but we were progressing well and gaining into Q3. Then I think the track cooled down a bit and we didn’t read the conditions as well as we could have. We got it together for our final lap and we only lacked half a tenth or so to be further ahead.

That said, fourth is a strong position to start the sprint race from. I think Mercedes’ new engine seems to be working pretty well, Lewis was untouchable today, but we will see tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good sprint race because the car has shown some good pace and I think it should be looking good.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal

“I think the new Mercedes engine has definitely given them some extra horsepower so I think second was the best that we could have hope for. To be on the front row tomorrow, we can be happy with that. So much can happen in these sprint races, as we’ve seen this season, so you’ve just got to go for it at the start, then see where you are.

I think we’ve got a good race car and it’s going to get hotter throughout the weekend so that will also be a factor here, it’s been pretty cool on track today so let’s see in the race tomorrow.”