Both Verstappen and Perez had disappointing qualifying sessions at the Hungaroring as Mercedes’ George Russell took his maiden pole position.
Perez failed to make it out of Q2 after blaming being held up by Haas driver Kevin Magnussen on his final run for not making it through. He therefore starts from 11th.
Verstappen did make it through to Q3 but found his chances of fighting for pole wrecked when he suffered an unexpected power loss on his final Q3 run, and he therefore dropped to 10th.
With a change in F1’s regulations ahead of the British Grand Prix allowing teams to fit fresher engines, even of a different spec, during parc ferme conditions after qualifying, Red Bull has elected to use the opportunity to go for its final allowed power units of the season.
As this is still within their original allocation, both Verstappen and Perez can run the brand-new power units without a penalty.
However, it is likely that at some point in the second half of the campaign they will need to swap for another engine, which will probably trigger a grid penalty.
Sister team AlphaTauri, which had a disappointing qualifying session, has also gone for an engine change of Gasly’s car after he only managed 19th on the grid.
As this is outside of his allowance on several components, this means he will have to take a grid penalty.
However, as the changes were made without approval from the FIA’s Technical Delegate because it was done for tactical reasons rather than reliability, then it means that he must start from the pitlane.
