“I think we got Tsunoda’d,” says Christian Horner as Red Bull struggle to explain why they lost advantage over Mercedes; But team and championship leader still positive for race with long run down to Turn 1; Watch Mexico City GP live on Sky Sports F1 at 7pm

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Karun Chandhok was at the SkyPad to look back on how Valtteri Bottas finished ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has admitted that the Mexico City GP favourites “underperformed” in qualifying but still blamed Yuki Tsunoda for ruining the final laps, while Max Verstappen called their Saturday “terrible” but remains positive for his battle against Lewis Hamilton in the race.

Tipped to secure their first front-row lockout of the season on Saturday, Red Bull instead only secured third and fourth on the grid as Mercedes unexpectedly, and in the end comfortably, filled the top positions.

“I think we underperformed in Q3,” Horner told Sky F1.

“From our side, just a terrible qualifying,” added Verstappen in third. “And then you deserve to be where you are.”

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner thinks Yuki Tsunoda’s actions caused both his drivers to lose out on their final qualifying lap in Mexico City

Red Bull struggled to explain just what caused their slump as they lost their half-second advantage from practice, insisting last-minute changes to the rear wing were “precautionary” and that Mercedes were just “very quick”.

But Horner rued Tsunoda’s impact on their qualifying, with the Japanese rookie – who drives for Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri and was trying to get out of the way of Sergio Perez and Verstappen – having inadvertently disrupted the pair’s laps when driving off-track in the middle sector.

“I think we got Tsunoda’d,” Horner said. “Both drivers were up on their last lap, Max was up two and a half tenths, I think Sergio was just under two tenths up, and I don’t understand why he was just cruising around at that part of the circuit.

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Verstappen says the dust brought up by AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda was enough to distract him as he qualified third in Mexico City

“It’s disappointing because it affected both the drivers, they’re both pretty annoyed.”

Tsunoda, who was called a “dumb idiot” by Verstappen on team radio, countered on Saturday evening that he could do “no more”.

Why Red Bull, Verstappen are optimistic for race

But after that “terrible” Saturday comes an opportunity on Sunday for Red Bull, with pole position by no means an advantage for the Mexico City GP – live on Sky Sports from 7pm tonight.

The run down to Turn 1 is one of the longest on the calendar at over 800 metres, giving drivers behind ample opportunity to get a tow and potentially get ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton in the Mercedes.

And Verstappen, who starts a place behind the man he leads by 12 points in the title race, insisted: “If I had to choose between second and third, I’d choose third.”

Explaining Red Bull’s positivity, Horner said: “You’ve still got Valtteri ahead of Lewis. And Lewis on the dirty side [of the grid], Max is on the clean side.

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Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was surprised to qualify second at the Mexico City Grand Prix

“It’s all going to be about where they are after the first lap and then of course the strategy will come into play.

“We believe we should have a quick race car here. I think we can still have a good race.”

Mercedes’ straight-line speed advantage may still be a factor, however, while Horner also looked ahead to a Turn 1 battle. Verstappen and Hamilton made contact at that corner back at the last race in 2019.

“We could see yesterday they’ve addressed the engines issues they had previously,” stated the team boss. “They’ve got good straight-line speed here, so it’s going to be tough.

“I think the first opportunity here is into Turn 1, you’ve only got to look at the replays from 2019 to see that it can get a bit juicy down there.

“The tow is strongest on that first lap. It’s going to be grandstand seats down there, we need to have a good start from both the drivers and try and give it a run.”