Red Bull's Christian Horner unsurprised Mercedes power dominates Brazil qualifying

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said he wasn’t surprised Mercedes-powered cars dominated qualifying at the Brazilian GP on Saturday.

With Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton starting the race on the front row ahead of Williams pair Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas and Jenson Button’s McLaren next up, Sebastian Vettel was the fastest qualifier without Mercedes power at his disposal in sixth.

Vettel’s Renault-powered RB10 was almost a second off Rosberg’s pace – quite a margin around the short 4.309 km Interlagos track, although Horner told Sky Sports F1 it was an outcome he’d anticipated.  

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“The circuit’s so short and so few corners: sectors one and three are dominated by straights; it’s just the infield that is the technical part. So it’s no surprise there’s five Mercedes-powered cars dominating the first five positions,” he said.

Vettel and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo experienced contrasting fortunes on Saturday: the Australian qualifying ninth after going fifth fastest in final practice, when the defending World Champion was only 11th.

“I think Seb did a good recovery from this morning and probably got everything there was to get out of the car,” Horner said.

“Daniel lost a bit of performance from this morning, just picked up a bit of understeer in the car so the balance just got away from him slightly, perhaps just as the temperature dropped.

“[That’s] probably about where we are, to be honest, here.”

Although cloud cover increased during the afternoon, the rain forecast didn’t materialise and Horner is hoping a downpour will affect Sunday’s race.

Red Bull are noted for their strategic prowess and smart pit work too - both of which they exploited last weekend to help Ricciardo to third place in the U.S. GP ahead of Massa and Bottas. 

“In reality, if it’s a dry race and nothing happens, then that’s the way it’ll finish. But as we see here, it very rarely is a standard race," Horner said.

“If there is a bit of weather about then hopefully we can put the pressure on the cars ahead. And through good strategy, as we saw last weekend, we are able to beat faster cars.

“There’s potentially rain about and that could spice things up. The first two guys are obviously concerned on their own internal battle, Williams have done a super job here and Jenson’s qualified well."

At the very least, Horner said his team's ambition is “to try and get ahead of at least Jenson. The other guys are probably too quick for us in dry conditions, but who knows?”