Christian Horner’s nine-word verdict says it all after Sergio Perez’s latest huge blunder

Sergio Perez started the Sprint from the pit lane as Red Bull made set-up changes after he qualified down in 16th and his day got worse when he failed to react to the lights going green

Christian Horner looked less than impressed after an apparent lapse in concentration saw Sergio Perez fail to react to the start of the race.

Perez started the Qatar Sprint race from the pit lane after Red Bull opted to make set-up changes which triggered that punishment. They did so after he suffered another poor qualifying result, having only gone 16th fastest of the 20 drivers.

But there was another embarrassing moment to come. When the lights went green at the end of the pit lane to tell the drivers they could go, Perez failed to put his foot down and spent several more seconds still stationary.

By the time he did react, he had already been swept past by Franco Colapinto, the Williams driver having also started from the pit lane but behind the Red Bull. And, from there, Perez spent the rest of the short race running around at the back, making no progress.

Team principal Horner looked bemused with his driver as he spoke about it after the Sprint. Asked what had happened, he admitted: “I don’t know, to be honest. I need to have a chat with him about it, but it looked like he just misjudged it.”

He went on to add, with a touch of sarcasm in his voice: “When the light goes out, you’re supposed to go.” With the Mexican well out of points contention, Red Bull opted to pit him with a few laps left to fit a new front wing.

It was never going to add anywhere near enough performance to make it worthwhile in the context of the Sprint, but Horner explained that they viewed data collection as a more valuable endeavour than just watching their car lap at the back of the pack as it was.

He explained: “We got a bit of data out of it. There was no chance we were going to score any points so we might as well use that session to get something out of it. We changed the wing and tried something a bit different, which gives the engineers some information for qualifying later.”

Max Verstappen also struggled for pace during the Sprint and Horner said his team has “a mountain to climb” to get the cars in a position to compete for big points on Sunday. Red Bull are third in the constructors’ championship and leaders McLaren extended their lead by finishing first and second.

“The constructors’, McLaren have got one hand on the trophy, I would say, after that race,” Horner asserted. “But there are two Grands Prix left and it is about finishing as highly as you can. We are treating both like cup finals, with nothing to lose and going for it.”