Christian Horner explains Red Bull mistake as Sergio Perez “stitched up” at Las Vegas GP

Max Verstappen secured a spot on the front row in Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying while Sergio Perez didn’t even make it through to Q3 as Red Bull made a rare error

Sergio Perez was annoyed after qualifying 12th in Las Vegas(Sky Sports)

Red Bull admitted making a key error which condemned Sergio Perez to another poor qualifying result.

One-lap pace has been the Mexican’s weakness this year and the source of many of his struggles. And, again, he could not even reach Q3 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. But this time the team had to take a significant share of the blame.

The track was improving all the time, meaning that the best laps were going to be achieved at the end of each part of the session. But Red Bull gambled that Perez would be better off setting his Q2 out of the traffic and so put him out on track earlier than others.

But it didn’t pay off. Despite being comfortably in the top 10 after setting his time. He returned to the pits only to sit there powerlessly as, one by one, his rivals kept leapfrogging him until he was down in 12th on the timesheets.

Fans on social media were quick to point the finger at Red Bull for the error, including several who agreed Perez had been “stitched up” by the team. Speaking after the session, team principal Christian Horner admitted the team’s mistake.

“He went a little earlier,” the 50-year-old explained. “We only took three sets of soft tyres into qualifying. To try and avoid getting caught in traffic on the last lap, he did the lap a little earlier and was just a tenth short.

“We knew that was our strategy from the beginning. It’s a new track and it caught us out. We were already lacking in Q1 and plenty of things to discuss internally. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting race with plenty of things going to happen.”

Follow the Las Vegas Grand Prix action live on Sky Sports

The Las Vegas strip has been transformed into an F1 circuit for a unique weekend of action as the 2023 season nears its close. With the second-longest circuit on the calendar, and a fresh surface, there is set to be plenty of unknowns and you can watch all of the action on Sky Sports.

Perez himself backed up that suggestion that the strategy had been pre-planned. But he lamented the fact that the team had got it wrong as he admitted he had expected a much better result.

He said: “We had a strategy before qualifying with the team and obviously we don’t know this place and we were thinking what was the best program and we went this route. Obviously, before that, after that, it’s easier to know that it was the wrong call.

“Already in Q1 we were a bit lucky to get through because we didn’t get our final lap coming back to the pits and then in Q2, just finishing the session a little bit too early meant that there was some evolution still on the track and we were on the pits. This is a new place for us, so I wasn’t expecting it but, it’s how it is.”