For Christian Horner, Max Verstappen is “absolutely breathtaking”

Is it possible to describe this victory as “easy”?

It’s the opposite, it was anything but easy. Rain was forecast towards the end of the race, and seeing our main opponent in Hard tires on the grid raised some questions. If the Medium degraded too quickly, maybe the Hard compound would last until the rain came. For Max, the first job was to get a good start, which he managed to do. Then he settled into a rhythm which allowed him to widen the gap.

Quite comfortably, he obtained the lead equivalent to the duration of a pit-stop on Or with, and 10 seconds on Fernando corresponding to a Safety Car window. At this point in the race he was doing such a good job with the tires that we left him on track to see how things would develop weather-wise. When the rain finally came, he was very mature in the way he handled the situation. He is now the driver with the most victories at the controls of a Red Bull. He beats Seb's record (Hag); which is an absolutely incredible achievement. He produced a first-class ride today.

Driving like your qualifying lap?

This one will undoubtedly go down as one of the best of his career. I followed it live on telemetry. Sector 1 matched its best free sessions. From the start of sector 2, he started to gain a little time. From turn 11 to the chicane, he was very fast. It is really in this sector of the industry that he built his tower. Then came the final stretch, and that’s where he made the difference, hitting the slides on several occasions. Absolutely stunning.

In the race, only Fernand Alonso will have been able to create an illusion...

More than that since he was able to stay within the window of a pit stop and a still possible intervention from the Safety Car. When the conditions became what they were, you could see how these two guys adapted. They were above the rest. It’s beautiful to see this confidence in Fernando, the way he drives this Aston Martin. I think there are a lot of similar things about the two of them, like the way they drive, how they push all the time. We can also see how they appreciate this confrontation.

At this rate, the championship will soon be over...

There are 16 races left, and lots of things can happen. We continue to take things as they come, one race at a time. We will continue to try to optimize every weekend, and we will see where it takes us.

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