“Are They Bluffing Or Not?”: Mercedes Played Games With Red Bull Masterminds While 2022 Champs Expected Different Threat

Max Verstappen secured the 19th pole position of his Formula 1 career on the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The two-time champion will start the race from the front, hoping to break the record for most wins in a season. However, despite his dominance, the Red Bull man admits “it was closer than we thought” in the qualifying session.

Mercedes has been down and out in the current season so far. However, the Silver Arrows are a surprise package at the Mexican GP, with the P2 and P3 qualifying result as proof. The result even surprised Red Bull’s Helmut Marko as he admitted, “Actually, we had expected Ferrari” behind Verstappen instead of the Mercedes men.

Despite different expectations, the Red Bull advisor admitted they were wary of Mercedes’s threat. “Of course, we had Mercedes in mind after they had both cars in front in the third free practice session,” admitted Marko. (Translated by Google)

However, there was a suspicion in the Red Bull camp that both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were running lighter. Dr. Mark revealed, “But we had the suspicion that Mercedes wasn’t running on quite the same amount of fuel as we were. At the end of the day we didn’t know exactly – are they bluffing or not?”

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Bluff or not, Red Bull secured the pole, following a perfect lap from Verstappen. The former professional racing driver also revealed it could’ve been closer without Russell’s mistake.

Max Verstappen drove perfectly, but Russell could’ve posed a greater threat to Red Bull

Mercedes men were rapid in FP3 and during the qualifying as well. However, when push came to shove, Verstappen delivered to fend off the two surprise packages in the form of Mercedes’s W13. Russell’s botched last flying lap also came in handy.

“Max did it perfectly except for sector 2. We can be satisfied with being three-tenths ahead with such a power density.”

“If Russell had hit his last lap optimally, the gap would have been smaller,” admitted the Red Bull honcho.

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In the end, the Dutchman will start from the pole and go into turn 1 with the two Mercedes men on his tail. It will be exciting to see who comes out on top.