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Red Bull not feeling pressure to deliver

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner insists his team is not feeling the pressure of needing to convert its dominant qualifying performance in Spain into victory in the race - despite its early season failures to capitalise on its speed

Although Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel have been on pole position at every grand prix this season, the team has taken just one victory so far this year and sees rival McLaren lead the way in both championships.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Horner dismissed any suggestions that there was a creeping paranoia within the team about not making the most of its opportunities so far.

"There is nothing like that," he said. "When you look at the issues that we have had, out of four races we've been in a position to win three of them.

"The two that we didn't win were for a spark plug and a wheel issue that were completely rogue failures, and our driver was in the position to win both of those.

"We executed a brilliant 1-2 in Malaysia and in China there was a degree of relent to it. We just need to focus on doing the best job we can here today."

He added: "I am optimistic that we have had a good Friday run here. We've had a very good qualifying, all the upgrades have worked very well, and there is no reason that we shouldn't convert Saturday's performance into a result at the end of the end of the race."

Horner praised the efforts of his team members to have introduced such a major upgrade package onto its RB6 for Spain this weekend - which has been key in allowing Red Bull to maintain its advantage at the head of the field.

"The guys have been working hard in the factory and they have kept their heads down, and kept plugging away with performance that we have been trying to bring to the car at each grand prix," he said.

"They have brought a package here that looked good within our simulation tools of windtunnel and CFD, but it delivered on track as well which is always satisfying to see. It has been a massive effort by all involved, who have given up a lot of home time and worked all the way through the Bank Holiday weekend and so on to ensure that both cars were in the latest specification."

Although Red Bull Racing's rivals have been blown away by the speed of the car in Barcelona, with Webber nearly one second clear of 'best of the rest' Lewis Hamilton, Horner thinks it far too early to believe his team is clear favourite for the title.

"There is a long, long way to go - a lot of races," he said. "We are not leading either championship, and we've seen how performance moves around. There are still 15 races including here to go, which is a very long way yet."

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