Red Bull Racing had mixed results in qualifying ahead of tomorrow's Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Sergio Pérez, much maligned throughout the 2024 season for results far behind his teammate, failed to get out of Q1.
The result will see him start P16 in tomorrow's race, having been out-qualified by Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull's sister team VCARB.
Lawson is still viewed as Pérez's potential successor and team principal Christian Horner had recently commented on the need for both Red Bull cars to perform over the next three races - this latest qualifying result not likely to help his case for next season.
Speaking after qualifying, Pérez commented: "I wanted more today, and I felt we were some making progress, but not enough."
"In the end, it turned out to be a disappointing day."
Meanwhile, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen did progress to Q3, despite the team's reported error in packing the incorrect rear wing for the Las Vegas Circuit.
With a newly cut wing to reduce the amount of drag demonstrated in FP1 and 2, Verstappen managed to put his car P5 with a lap time of 1:32.797.
Speaking after qualifying, Verstappen said: "I mean we’re just a bit too slow. We have been struggling to get the tyres to work over a lap, and we are too slow on the straights as well, especially in qualifying."
"You can see our rear wing, it’s trimmed down quite a lot, around the DRS flap, so when we open DRS we don’t get the gains like others do, so that makes it a bit more complicated around here."
He added: "But that’s our own fault, we know that, that’s a compromise we have, but nevertheless I tried to do the best I could."
The result puts him ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris in P6, with the Brit the last driver mathematically capable of overtaking Verstappen at the top of the Drivers' Standings.
The Dutchman will need a strong performance in tomorrow's race to hold off Norris, with a result that either extends his lead or keeps Norris within 2 points of him enough to secure his fourth consecutive World Drivers Championship.
With the pair of title challengers both starting on the third row, it should make for a very interesting race.
