Helmut Marko praised Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez after qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix, but he questioned Ferrari’s pace.
The AlphaTauri and Red Bull drivers qualified fourth and fifth on the grid, with Ricciardo out-qualifying Perez in his bid to join Red Bull in 2025.
The pair were also within two tenths of Verstappen when the World Champion made mistakes on his Q3 runs, allowing Charles Leclerc to capture pole.
Reflecting on the three-four-five, Marko was also perplexed as to where Ferrari’s performance gain in Q3 had come from.
Congratulations to Perez and Ricciardo.
“They had to have driven at full throttle.” “We don’t have any other explanation, but it won’t get you very far in the race,” Motorsport Advisor Marko told Sky Germany.
“Max did not have a clean lap in either Q3 attempt, with issues in Turns 13 and 14 (in the stadium) costing him about one-and-a-half tenths on both laps.”
“With a perfect lap, we would have won pole.” However, you can overtake here, so we’re still optimistic about the race.”
Turning his focus to Perez, who qualified fifth, barely 0.160s behind Verstappen, Marko commended the home driver for outqualifying Lewis Hamilton.
“Checo has been strong all weekend and only 0.2 seconds behind Verstappen is a good performance,” Marko told reporters.
“He’s also ahead of Hamilton, and finishing ahead of the Mercedes is the main goal.”
“I’m still upbeat about the race.” Everything went well from our perspective, except for the fact that we are not at the front. We are now three and five instead of one and three.”
Marko also mentioned Ricciardo’s fourth-place finish, which saw him outqualify Perez, calling it “a great comeback after his hand injury and a good recommendation for his future.”
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