Christian Horner praised Max Verstappen’s incredible performance at the Spanish GP after beating Lando Norris and McLaren with a perfect drive and strategy.
Verstappen missed out on pole position by just 0.020s, but he managed to overtake Norris right before turn 1. Despite that, George Russell had the better of the two and got the lead of the race. However, the Red Bull driver overtook the Britton with a beautiful move around the outside in turn 1.
Horner underlined how difficult and crucial that pass was, something which allowed Verstappen and Red Bull to control the race with a flawless strategy.
“Max drove a brilliant race and I think strategically we got into a stride,” Horner explained to Sky Sports F1.
“We went for an optimum race time, and it paid off – and we knew that McLaren would come back with the overlap on the tire at the end of the race, but we just had enough in hand.
“It was so decisive and the first lap was crucial, and the pass on George was even more important. He needed to put the move on George quickly, and then get the tires under control – and I can’t express how difficult that is.
“Because on one hand, you’re telling the driver to ‘cruise and look after the tires’, but obviously he went for it and got the pass done and then executed a perfect race.
“He did it the hard way, around the outside, it was close, hard, and fair racing between the two of them, and we were relieved to get it done. It was crucial.
“He is so decisive, he just doesn’t mess about and when he is coming up to traffic, he is so decisive, and I think that is one of his key qualities. He is going to go for it – and the other drivers know that.”
The Red Bull team principal also added that the margin between the Milton Keynes-based outfit and McLaren is very tight, but throughout the whole Grand Prix, he felt that both the team and Verstappen had everything under control.
“It is fine margins, and I think the two of them were circa 18 seconds [17.790s] ahead of the rest of the field,” he said.
“But Lando had the longevity, they went for a slightly different strategy but in the end, we got the job done. We won the race and took maximum points.
“There was only one corner we could see Lando was quicker, which was in Turn 1, and the rest, Max had it covered, so it was always going to get closer because of that tire offset and the pit-stops.
“But we always felt confident that with the tools we had, we had enough in hand.”