Horner: 'It was close, but Verstappen came all the way back on the softs'

Red Bull Racing is known for starting the season half-asleep and only waking up halfway through. The last few races the team can really fight against Mercedes, but by then it's far too late to fight for the championship.

This season the team is flying straight away and that has immediately resulted in a pole position for Verstappen. "It's fantastic to start the season like this, it's our first pole at an opening race since 2013 and Honda's since Ayrton Senna in 1991. You never really know where you stand at the first race of the year until the petrol is pumped into the cars and the engine mode is cranked up. It was close in Q2 and it looked like Mercedes had a slight advantage on the medium tyre, but Max came back on the softs," Christian Horner told Red Bull Racing's Team Review.

An experienced and mature teammate

While Max Verstappen will start from the top of the grid, teammate Sergio Perez will have to settle for P11. Yet Horner is not disappointed with the Mexican. "He was unlucky to miss out on Q3. He is very mature, experienced and adapts quickly. He's only had a day and a half of testing and everything is very new for him in terms of how the car feels. But he will be competitive in the race and you certainly shouldn't rule him out," continued the team boss.

"The team has worked extremely hard over the winter to put us in this position and Honda and ExxonMobil have also done a very good job. Tomorrow will be close and Mercedes will give it all. Everyone wrote them off two weeks ago and they are exactly where we expected them to be. It will be a big challenge for us to beat them, but we start from the best possible position," concluded the Brit.