Horner visibly frustrated after Perez howler | Replacing him ‘wide of the mark'

Perez became the first Red Bull driver since 2008 to not make Q3 for four consecutive races.

Embarrassingly in Q2, Perez had all three of his laps deleted for exceeding track limits at the final couple of corners.

It leaves Perez 15th on the grid for Sunday’s race, while teammate Max Verstappen stormed to another pole position. 

Speaking to Sky after qualifying, Horner couldn’t hold back his frustration.

“He’s got the pace today,” he said. “He’s got a car that was easily capable of being on the first or second row. 

“He was matching Max’s times, stay in the white lines. It was strike one, strike two, Checo just stay in the white lines, strike three and that was it. 

“Hugely frustrating - he could have been there, he could have done it. That’s the frustration. It’s fantastic to get the pole but it feels not complete.”

Horner believes Perez was wrong to push too hard in Q2 as getting through to the pole position shootout was the only goal.

“It’s hugely frustrating because we know he can do it,” he added. “He did a 4.9 on that lap. He was three hundredths off Max. He could have been four-tenths slower and still been in. Q2, that’s not the time to be doing it so that was the frustrating thing today.

“The most pressure he’s under is the pressure he puts him under himself. Today he had the pace. Practice 1 he was there. 

“The lap times he was doing he was within a tenth of Max today. That’s the annoying thing - that’s the frustration. It’s a great shame as that would have really kick started things.”

Horner refused to get drawn in on Perez’s future, backing the Mexican by stating that any speculation is “wide of the mark”.

“Look everybody is fully behind [him] so any talk about replacing Checo is wide of the mark,” he concluded.