Horner offers thin defence of Perez after latest shocker at Qatar GP
Red Bull chief Christian Horner has defended Sergio Perez after he only qualified 13th for the Qatar Grand Prix.
Perez made a strong start to the season, winning two of the first four races, but he has failed to win one since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix back in April. And after he was forced to retire from the last race in Japan, things have not got much better for Perez in Qatar.
His best lap in qualifying was deleted due to a track limits violation, leaving him to start 13th in Sunday's race. However, Horner was quick to point out that even if Max Verstappen was not dominating the championship, Red Bull would still be leading with Perez.
"I mean we'd still be leading the world championship with Checo if we didn't have him (Verstappen) but obviously the delta between the two is difficult to explain at the moment," Horner said. "It's a shame for Checo - he made it into Q3 and lost the lap time.
"We saw the same thing with Oscar (Piastri) and Lando (Norris). It's very tough. Again Max getting the job done. A tough one for Checo." However, while Perez is currently second in the driver standings, he is a whopping 177 points behind Verstappen and just 33 points ahead of third-placed Lewis Hamilton despite his car being vastly superior to the Brit's Mercedes.
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"It was quite difficult, I struggled a lot for balance," Perez admitted after qualifying. "Basically we had so many issues that I just couldn't fix any of them. Every corner was pretty much different, I think the conditions are very difficult though, but I just struggled a lot today.
"It's not over. It's obviously going to be very difficult to pass, especially with the track conditions that we currently have, but we'll see what we are able to do and recover from there."
Perez struggled in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix (Dan Istitene - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)As a result of Perez's struggles, there has been speculation Red Bull will look to replace him and Sky Sports pundit Naomi Schiff believes the "pressure really is on" the 33-year-old. "He makes the places up because he's got the car that's supposed to be at the front to begin with," Schiff said.
"He's qualifying out of position, most of the time [it's] his own fault, and I think at this part of the season he's really wanting to prove to the team why he deserves that second seat at Red Bull because I can guarantee you that there's so many drivers who are either in the paddock or are out of this paddock at the moment who would love to have a seat at Red Bull.
"Checo is not there for no reason and no driver is on the grid in Formula 1 for no reason, but he has been making a lot of mistakes and I think for him the pressure really is on. I think some of these mistakes also come from being under pressure and sometimes overdriving."
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