Toto Wolff was quick to crack a joke about Red Bull after Max Verstappen suffered a mechanical problem in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was not able to match pre-qualifying expectations. He had topped the timesheets in all three practice sessions in Jeddah and was quickest in Q1 as well, but suffered a drive shaft issue on his car in the second part of the session.
He limped back to the garage after reporting the issue but there was nothing that could be done. So Verstappen will be 15th on the grid for Sunday's race, while Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez took pole in his absence.
Wolff was happy to crack a joke about it as he reacted to the session. The Mercedes boss said: "Maybe they've done it on purpose to get a win all the way from the back," in reference to Verstappen starting from 15th.
Reacting to the result, Verstappen did not rule out the possibility of being in the hunt for victory on Sunday despite starting so far back. He said: "It's very annoying for it to happen as I think so far we've had a really good weekend.
"Every session has gone really well and every time we went on the track the car was working really well. So now it will be a bit more tricky to get to the front. But it's all about scoring points. It's a long season. Of course, I would have preferred to start further up the road, but I can't change that now."
Asked about what he can expect from the race, he added: "Anything is possible at this track. We've seen a lot of crazy things, but we have to stay realistic. It's going to be tough, but we have good pace so for sure we'll move forward."
George Russell will start the race third with Lewis Hamilton seventh – both bumped up a place thanks to Charles Leclerc's penalty. Wolff seemed fairly happy with that result for his team considering all the problems they have.
He said: "I think it's where we expected to be. We know that we have the deficits, and we are in the ball park – we will move two tenths up or two tenths down. We need to do the big steps forward in the races to come.
"We also understand much better where there is a lack and we can also see here what we found in the wind tunnel. That will make us a few tenths faster. We're pushing through there now."
