Christian Horner has challenged his Red Bull drivers to work "collectively" if they are to beat pole-sitter Charles Leclerc at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Monegasque produced an outstanding final flying lap to secure the right to start from the front this afternoon. Sergio Perez had to settle for second while Max Verstappen could only manage the second row, one place ahead of the other Ferrari racer Carlos Sainz.
Verstappen will hope to overtake Leclerc and win the race himself, to extend his championship lead which currently stands at nine points. But Perez in front of him also has his own agenda – continue the momentum from his Monaco win and new contract to close the gap to the top for himself.
Perhaps with those personal wishes in mind, Horner has publicly called for his two drivers to put the team first to make sure they don't both miss out to Leclerc. "It is still too early in the season for that," he said when asked if there would be team orders in this race.
"We have to compete here as a team against Ferrari. After all, it is so close together and we're in a Ferrari sandwich with Leclerc and Sainz. More than ever, we will have to operate collectively to beat them."
Despite missing out to Leclerc on Saturday, Verstappen was optimistic in his post-session interview as he feels the Red Bulls have better race pace than their Ferrari rivals. "I think the start of the lap was good, but then it went away from me a little because of tiny mistakes," said the Dutchman. "It's not ideal, but in general we were struggling a bit to find front-to-rear balance over one lap. Of course not what I want, but as a team being second and third we have a good opportunity for tomorrow."
Asked if he believes there is enough pace in the Red Bulls to beat their Ferrari rivals, Verstappen replied: "I guess we will find out tomorrow, but I think overall we seem to lack a tiny bit over one lap but clearly in the long run our cars should be quite good."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Horner concurred that his team will most likely have the better car performance for the race. "I thought before qualifying that it was going to be very tight and that over a single lap, Ferrari would have the edge but we have shown so far on Sunday’s we have a good and competitive race car," he added.
"At a track you can overtake at, hopefully we can give them a hard time. It is such a long straight here and the DRS is pretty powerful but of course you have to be close enough to use that in the middle sector so it will all be about trying to go with and convert the start."
