Christian Horner said he does not understand why there was such a delay in the red flag being displayed during a crucial moment in the qualifying session in Brazil.

Lance Stroll’s late crash influenced both Red Bulls’ exits in Q2, but it was race director Niels Wittich’s decision that ultimately decided their fate.

Christian Horner was confused by the race director’s red flag call

After the rain on Saturday, F1 returned to Interlagos for a 7:30am start to try and start qualifying while the weather was a little better, but even with different conditions, it was still a huge challenge for the drivers with no less than five red flags throughout the long session.

And while Lando Norris took pole, there was fury within the Red Bull camp after a controversial decision by the race director expelled Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez from Q2.

With just under two minutes left in Q2, Stroll crashed in Turn 3, but it took 40 seconds for race director Wittich to signal the red flag, which seemed to allow the likes of Norris to set a fast lap before neutralizing the event.

That left Verstappen furious and Horner agreed that it made little sense.

“It’s hugely frustrating,” he told Sky F1. “In a session like that, there’s obviously a lot going on. I don’t understand why it took so long for the red flag to appear.

“It’s obviously a big accident. Turn 3, one of the most dangerous on the circuit. It took 40 seconds to raise the red flag and it’s the second day in a row we’ve had very late calls, whether it was a VSC yesterday or the red flag today.

“The other warning signs were all instantaneous. So look, I mean, very, very harsh, but you know, it is what it is. We have to try to defend ourselves this afternoon.”

That fight will begin from very low on the grid with Verstappen’s penalty provisionally pushing him to P16 while Perez qualified 13th.

More from the classification in Sao Paulo

Winners and losers of the qualification for the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix

F1 starting grid: What is the grid order for the 2024 Brazilian GP?

A small saving grace is that the narrow gap between qualifying and the race has meant that some of the drivers who crashed couldn’t even start the race. Alex Albon was the first to claim that his Williams had suffered too much damage, although the team has not yet confirmed this to be the case.

Regarding the red flag incident, Horner reiterated that the focus should be on safety, not letting drivers finish their laps.

“You have to focus on safety. It’s not about letting the cars finish the laps or not. As soon as you have an accident like that, there should be an immediate red flag, because you have a driver in the wall, one of the most dangerous corners on the circuit, you have passing cars and you can. I don’t say ‘oh well, we’ll wait for the others to finish their laps’.

“It doesn’t work like that.

“Lance Stroll wasn’t trying to get the car running again. I was screwed. He hit the barrier hard. I was in the middle of the track in turn 3, that’s a red flag.

“If they had red flagged immediately, Max would have been tenth. “If they had notified him immediately, there would be time for another round.”

Read below: Brazilian GP: Norris adds to Verstappen’s misery in crazy qualifying session