Red Bull will line up for the 2022 season opener in Bahrain from second and fourth on the grid, with Max Verstappen missing out on pole position to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by just a tenth of a second. According to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, that tenth of a second may have been lost as a result of a small error from Verstappen. "Charles did a great lap at the end there," Horner told Sky Sports F1. "Max had a little bit of a wobble in the last corner, I think, and the margins are so fine. But, to start on the front row after such a big regulation change, we're more than happy with that."
Horner: The race will be fascinating
With Formula 1 having gone through a revolutionary rule change for 2022, Horner said he was astonished by how close the teams are given the extent of the technical challenge. "It's fantastic. I think, for such a clean sheet of regulations, [the gap between] Checo [Perez] and the pole is like three tenths – it's nothing!" he said. "It's such a big change and [there are] such radical differences between the cars, so I think the race is going to be fascinating tomorrow, to see if these cars can follow closer and we can race closer. "For us, after such an intense year last year, to turn up and qualify on the front row with this new car, and [have] Checo on the second row, we're more than happy with that."
How will Red Bull fare on race pace?
Both Ferrari and Red Bull looked strong over the longer runs in practice on Friday, and Horner is fascinated to see how the race plays out between the Scuderia and his drivers. "It's a little bit of a voyage of discovery, because we don't really know how strong their long-run pace is," he added. "We've got more to find out about ourselves. We had a decent run yesterday, but it's only going to be when the lights go out tomorrow that we really see what kind of shape we're in, and what the [tyre] degradation is like."
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