Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko described Saturday’s shock result as a “good bluff” from Mercedes, who locked out the front row in qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix. Red Bull was the weekend favorite on paper and seemed like the pace-setter after the last practice session on Saturday morning.
Qualifying told a different story, however, as Mercedes-Lewis Hamilton first fired the first warning shot at Red Buls Max Verstappen on the middle tire in Q2 in order to be the fastest.
Valtteri Bottas also seemed quick in his Mercedes and promptly secured pole position in the last part of qualifying, his team-mate Hamilton was just over a tenth behind.
Verstappen starts third on the grid after getting involved in an incident with his team-mate Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda from AlphaTauri.
But Marko believes their main title rivals have played some tactics.
“That was a very good bluff from Mercedes,” said Marko in an interview with Red Bulls ServusTV after qualifying.
Verstappen finished second, two-tenths behind Hamilton, despite slowing down due to the Perez and Tsunoda incident, and Marko added that the Dutchman could have won without the pole.
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“I think we would have gotten very close or maybe in between,” added Marko. “But the superiority that came [at] first is gone. It’s going to be a very difficult race.
“Let’s see the start and how it all goes on.”
League leaders Verstappen was frustrated after the session, claiming that his lap was severely hampered by his teammate and Tusonda.
“The first half of the lap is just terrible, like just no grip, just sliding around a lot,” said Verstappen in an interview with Sky Sports F1 after the session.
“When I saw the gap [to Mercedes] Actually, I thought well, that’s fair enough.
“I mean, we just had a terrible lap so we tried to make a few changes to the way the car drove.
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“And I think the second lap looked okay, still not a good balance, but still good enough to fight for pole.
“And then I don’t know what happened between Yuki and Checo [Perez] as if, of course, they both went far in the end.
“And of course you see a lot of dust at this speed that you don’t know because it’s easy to think with sharp eyes that maybe a car has turned or crashed or whatever.
“So I’m picking up [Turn] 10 and then I realized they were driving slowly so they probably run into each other.
“But then of course your momentum is gone, I’ve lost two and a half tenths of my lap time.
“He tried to catch up on that in the last sector but that never worked. So it’s a great shame on our part that it’s a terrible qualifying, we deserve to be where we are now.
“I mean, of course, I would still have liked to have been on pole and then would have seen what happened at turn one, but we just have to accept what happened in qualifying, it’s not what we want, of course, but it is not the “end of the world.
“So we just focus on tomorrow and try to have a good start and then of course we just see what happens on turn one and see where it goes.”
The Dutchman leads Hamilton by 12 points in Mexico City, with the lights off at 7 p.m. BST on Sunday night.
The post Red Bull boss Helmut Marko accuses Mercedes of the Mexican GP tactics – “a good bluff” | F1 | Sports first appeared on monter-une-startup.
