Christian Horner said he does not understand why there
was such a delay in the red flag being shown during a pivotal moment of the
qualifying session in Brazil.
Lance Stroll’s late crash played a part in both Red Bulls
exiting in Q2 but it was the decision of race director Niels Wittich that
ultimately decided their fate.
Christian Horner left confused at race director red flag
call
After being rained off on Saturday, F1 returned to
Interlagos for a 7:30AM start in order to try and get quali underway while the
weather was a little kinder but even with different conditions, it was still a
hugely challenging one for the drivers with no less than five red flags
throughout the elongated session.
And while Lando Norris took pole, there was fury within the
Red Bull camp after a controversial call from the race director sent both Max
Verstappen and Sergio Perez out in Q2.
With a little under two minutes left in Q2, Stroll crashed
at Turn 3 but it took 40 seconds for race director Wittich to signal the red
flag, appearing to allow the likes of Norris to set a flying lap before
neutralising the event.
That
left Verstappen furious and Horner agreed that it made little sense.
“It’s hugely frustrating,” he told Sky F1. “In a session
like that, there’s obviously a huge amount going on. I don’t understand why it
took so long for the red flag to come up.
“It’s obviously a big accident. Turn 3, one of the most
dangerous corners on the circuit. 40 seconds it took to throw the red flag and
it’s the second day in a row now that we’ve had very late calls whether it was
a VSC yesterday or the red flag today.
“The other red flags were all instantaneous. So look, I
mean, very, very harsh, but you know, it is what it is. We’ve got to try and
fight back this afternoon.”
That fight back will begin from far down the grid with
Verstappen’s gid penalty provisionally pushing him to P16 while Perez qualified
13th.
A small saving grace is that the tight gap between quali and
the race has meant some of the drivers who crashed may be unable to even start
the race. Alex Albon was the first to state that too much damage was done to
his Williams although the team have yet to confirm this is the case.
As for the red flag incident, Horner reiterated that the
focus should be on safety, not about letting drivers finish their laps.
“You’ve got to focus on the safety. It’s not about letting cars finish laps or not. As soon as you have an accident like that, should be an immediate red flag, because you’ve got a driver in the wall, one of the most dangerous corners on the circuit, you’ve got cars coming through, and you can’t say ‘oh, well, we’ll just wait for the others to finish their laps.
.webp)
