According to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, Max Verstappen won one to two tenths thanks to the support of teammate Sergio Perez. After his first flying lap in Q3, Lewis Hamilton had to make up for half a second on his title rival.
Mercedes did not use the slipstreaming tactics. After qualifying, Hamilton was asked if the team had not discussed this: “No, we never talked about that and we never actually did that,” he told RacingNews365, among others.
Verstappen explained that Red Bull had discussed the slipstream plan on Saturday morning: “We discussed this before qualifying and it was executed perfectly. I think it got me a tenth up to Turn 9. Checo is a great team-mate and it is a pleasure to work with him. A big thank you to him.”
“I wanted Valtteri to focus on his own qualifying. We worked as a team to make sure he could qualify for the highest position possible. It’s something we’ve never discussed or thought we should. to do.
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