Red Bull confident with split strategy for race
Red Bull Racing have again opted to put both its cars on different tyres for Sunday's US GP, hoping that the difference will give them a better option to beat Mercedes. Both Red Bull drivers proved confident of these choices following a strong qualifying.
“A strong qualifying by both of our drivers to line up third and fourth on the grid", said Christian Horner.
"We adopted a different strategy for the drivers in Q2 with Daniel on the supersoft tyres and Max on the softs, which was not only the drivers’ preference but also from the team perspective it gives us different options for race strategy. We know Mercedes are always very strong on a Saturday but we had encouraging race pace yesterday and hopefully we can use that to good effect in the Grand Prix tomorrow.”
While Verstappen opted to complete Q2 on the soft tyres, and hence start the race on these, Daniel Ricciardo chose the super softs.
“I’m happy with qualifying for sure", Ricciardo said.
"It was pretty much the best we could do today, good progression and we got quicker and quicker. We start on the supersofts and the guys around me are on softs so I hope that works out well for me. We suspected that would be the case and I was happy to do it, hopefully it gives me a little bit off the start and we can challenge the first lap.
"The supersofts probably won’t have as much range as the softs so you want to try and get at least a handful of laps out of them, but ideally it puts me in a better position off the start and hopefully I can dictate my own pace as opposed to fighting in traffic.”
Max Verstappen interestingly looked a little less forward, and instead says he will have to focus on the cars behind him.
“Being both on the second row is not a bad result at all. For me the qualifying started off well but didn’t end great", Verstappen commented.
"I have three cars in front of me so there will need to be some passing during the race and hopefully starting on the soft compound will help. Mercedes have shown in qualifying that they are pretty strong and will be hard to beat. Our focus needs to be on what comes from behind us. Daniel and I starting on different strategies means we have options to attack or defend so I hope it is an exciting race.”
