“Max and Lewis was a genuine racing incident” – Red Bull’s Christian Horner

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner believes Max Verstappen’s crash with title rival Lewis Hamilton was a racing incident, in what was a difficult Italian Grand Prix for the team.

After a successful sprint qualifying at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the main race on Sunday was the complete opposite for Red Bull! Championship leader Verstappen who started on pole, lost the lead of the race by the first corner of the opening lap. The opening lap even saw Verstappen and Hamilton almost come to blows, Hamilton who was on the outside of Verstappen entering turns four and five, was forced across the kerbs after not being given enough room by the Dutchman.

The race then became worse for Verstappen, who’s temper flared after an excruciatingly slow pit-stop in very un-Red Bull fashion. The slow stop allowed the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team to capitalise and pit Hamilton, who came out just a car lengths ahead of Verstappen.

Verstappen who was still clearly angry refused to give up the place to Hamilton, the Dutchman tried to go around the outside of Hamilton at turn one to then have the inside line for turn two. There simply wasn’t enough room for the pair, as Verstappen’s Red Bull bounced over the sausage kerbs and launched itself into the air, landing on top of Hamilton’s halo in terrifying fashion.

In what was a horrific and peculiar crash, Verstappen’s rear-right tyre even made contact with Hamilton’s helmet, in what was another example of the supreme job the halo device serves. Both of course were out of the race, Verstappen was caught instantly storming back down the pit-lane.

To further dampen his mood, the stewards deemed that Verstappen was predominately at fault and awarded the championship leader a three-place grid penalty for the Russian Grand Prix, he was also awarded two penalty points to his license.

Sergio Pérez too was not a fan of the stewards at the Italian Grand Prix, the Mexican who finished the race in third, was demoted to fifth after being awarded a five-second time penalty for gaining an unfair advantage when overtaking Charles Leclerc. Pérez ran across the kerbs and off the circuit at turn five, when overtaking the Scuderia Ferrari and failed to give the place back, the overtake was quite clearly illegal.

The grand prix left Christian Horner frustrated at the penalties awarded to both drivers, after believing that the Verstappen Hamilton crash was a racing incident and that Pérez wasn’t informed to give the place back by the stewards.

“We are disappointed with the three place grid penalty, but accept the stewards decision. We felt what happened between Max and Lewis was a genuine racing incident.  You can argue for both sides but ultimately it’s frustrating and disappointing to see both cars out of the race in what is proving to be an exciting championship. The main thing today is that the halo ultimately did its job and certainly this isn’t the way we intended to finish the race.

“With Checo, he was desperately unlucky and we felt it was very marginal given there was no instruction from the race office to give the position back. We had to make a decision whether or not to get on with the race, and so we got our heads down and then Checo was handed the penalty. He drove some strong laps under intense pressure but was unable to open up a gap and so we were sad to finish third on the road but fifth overall with only one car scoring points.”