“Been a struggle all weekend” - Christian Horner reacts to Max Verstappen missing on pole in Monaco

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expressed disappointment with the RB20 at Monaco as Max Verstappen failed to qualify for pole position, ending his nine-race streak. He will start the race at P6.

Verstappen's weekend at Monaco has not been the best one so far. He was not in the top three fastest drivers during two of the practice sessions, moreover, he complained about the car multiple times in the sessions. During qualifying, he did look competitive at the beginning but ultimately did not qualify for pole position. Facing certain issues, he hit the wall on turn one during his final run, stating that the car was "slippery." He aborted the lap, giving Charles Leclerc the perfect opportunity for the pole position.

These issues have persisted for Red Bull this time around at Monaco. After Saturday's qualifying session, Horner told Sky Sports that the car did not match the "characteristics" of this circuit. He said:

"It's been a struggle all weekend. The car hasn't suited the characteristics of this circuit. Up until that last run, anything between second and sixth was on but unfortunately we didn't get that last run in."

Horner added that the RB20 looks strong in the first sector despite the struggles:

"The first sector was strong for us. It was mainly the tight hairpin, then Turn Five and Turn 10."

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Presumably disappointing race coming up for Max Verstappen and Red Bull as Horner believes "the race is pretty much done"

Monaco is a hard-to-overtake track because of the size of the cars leaving almost no space for the drivers to perform any action. Owing to this, Christian Horner believes that the race is "pretty much done" for RBR and Max Verstappen unless there is a safety car.

Horner said:

"The race is pretty much done barring Safety Cars. But we will come back fighting. Our race pace has been pretty good but whether we can demonstrate that, I'm not sure depending on how the traffic plays out."

Teams remain dependent on pit strategies to move up on the field during the race. A safety car, which is not a rare scene in Monaco, can shake things up. However, it still is hard to say if Verstappen will be able to finish in the podium places. He revealed to the media that driving the car in Sector 2 is extremely difficult because it feels like being on the edge of a knife:

"But it’s just like driving on a knife’s edge. I can’t drive on the kerbs, to be honest. That’s why we are losing so much time in Sector 2… I have to drive around everything while everyone else is just ploughing over it."

While Verstappen made it into Q3, his teammate, Sergio Perez, got knocked out quite early. He qualified in P18 after a disappointing session but will start the race in P16 after both the Haas drivers were disqualified from the session.