Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes his team's strong race pace during the second half of the Spanish Grand Prix gives a better indication of its true competitiveness.
Once again, Red Bull struggled for qualifying performance on Saturday and could only manage fifth and sixth on the grid. It opted to put both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo on one-stop strategies in a bid to beat Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas to the podium places.
Verstappen got ahead of Vettel under the Virtual Safety Car period and despite picking up damage after hitting the Williams of Lance Stroll, resisted the threat of the Ferrari in the closing stages. This fact -- backed up by Ricciardo's run of lap records in the closing stages -- shows Red Bull's actual potential, according to Horner.
"Again we saw the potential of the car with Daniel as soon as he had clear air recording the fastest laps of the race, Horner said. "Track position is everything at a circuit like this. Unfortunately, the damage done on a Saturday compromises your race at a track like this on a Sunday.
"Looking at the pace of the car it looked on a par with what Lewis could do, particularly in the second half of the race. So the problem is when you are caught up in traffic you are damaging the car. When you are in clean air it is a lot easier to manage.''
The final chicane in the third sector at the Circuit de Catalunya tends to give an indication of how cars will perform in Monaco given its tight and twisty nature. Comparing each of the drivers' best sector times in Barcelona, Ricciardo set the fastest final sector of anyone, edging Vettel and Verstappen, while Bottas and Hamilton were one-and-a-half tenths off the Australian's best S3 time in the Mercedes.
Red Bull's performance in the final part of the lap in Spain leaves Horner confident going into the Monaco Grand Prix.
"It is always a reasonable indicator here. It is not everything. But the car in Monaco should hopefully be competitive."