Mekis: It's nice that our efforts have been rewarded.
The Italian Grand Prix is only Laurent Mekies's fourth race as head of Red Bull Racing, but Max Verstappen's pole today confirms that the team's situation is gradually improving.
"You are never certain that you'll manage to take pole," Mekies commented on Sky Sports. "But the good news this weekend is that we were definitely closer to pole than at several previous rounds of the season. Overall, it's gratifying to know we had a chance at pole.
"That said, we understood that drivers from McLaren and Ferrari, or possibly even Mercedes, could also contend for the best qualifying result, so six or seven cars should be involved in the fight for pole. But Max and the whole team did a great job — from Friday we were on the right track and up to the end of qualifying we were actively trying to claw back every thousandth of a second. So it's nice that those efforts have been rewarded.
"We fully appreciate that McLaren will be stronger tomorrow. There have already been occasions when we were ahead of them in the race, but their pace was clearly higher. Every weekend we try to reduce the gap, so tomorrow we'll get another answer as to how much we're managing to progress."
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Mekis: It's nice that our efforts have been rewarded.
The Italian Grand Prix is only Laurent Mekies's fourth race in charge of Red Bull Racing, but Max Verstappen's pole today confirms that the team's fortunes are gradually improving...