Christian Horner: “The rebound we needed”

What do you remember from this weekend?

It was the bounce back we needed after Australia's disappointment, the result of a phenomenal team performance. We took the risk of arriving in Imola with a few new pieces; which is always tricky when you only have one practice session. Brilliant pit stop strategy today, hard work at the factory Milton Keynes, this “1-2” is a credit to Max and Sergio who drove brilliantly, but also to the team.

Why were you faster than Ferrari this week-end ?

As we saw in Melbourne, there is a window of operation for the tires. With the settings adopted this weekend, we found it. Conversely, we were able to see that Charles (Leclerc. Editor's note) had a little more difficulty than us with the front tires, both in the Sprint race and in the last part of the Grand Prix today. Max was able to control the race perfectly, and Checo was able to build a gap with Charles and manage it. And at no time, apart from a passage in the grass from Sergio, did we feel the pressure.

Have the reliability issues been understood and are they permanently resolved?

Having managed to score the maximum points score, barring one point over the entire weekend, is our best answer, but you can never say never. Obviously, we managed to overcome the problems encountered in Bahrain and Australia which were different.

What does this Grand Prix teach us about the rest of the championship?

That there will be ups and downs on both sides. The retirements were costly, especially for Max, but we will take a lot of confidence from this weekend. At championship level, it was important to take some points from Ferrari; what we did in both championship tables.

Was Leclerc a little too greedy?

He was pushing very hard in the race, and Turn 14, the chicane, was a part of the track where he was consistently faster than Checo. No doubt he was indeed a little too greedy, but mistakes can happen. He was lucky to finish to recover the points for 6^e place, and we that he does not end up on the podium.

The respect that Leclerc and Verstappen seems bigger than between Hamilton and Verstappen. Do you share this point of view?

They grew up running against each other in karting and so on, and they know each other very well. They are from the same generation.

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