Red Bull’s Christian Horner: “We pushed the button early and went for the undercut”

Christian Horner felt Max Verstappen had done enough to jump Charles Leclerc during the early pit stop cycle at the Circuit Paul Ricard by pitting ahead of the Monegasque racer, but the Scuderia Ferrari drivers crash meant they never found out if that was the case.

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen had slotted into second behind Leclerc at the start and was pressurising the polesitter for much of the first stint, although he dropped a few seconds back before he headed to the pits for his first pit stop.

Verstappen was making progress on fresh tyres and was on course to take over the lead only for Leclerc to crash out, and from there on it was a straightforward afternoon for the championship leader, much to the delight of Team Principal Horner.

“The main thing today is that Charles was ok, it was a cracking race between Max and him in that first stint,” said Horner.  “We pushed the button early and went for the undercut, Max had effectively taken track position, so it’s a shame we didn’t get to see how that played out, it would have been a great battle.

“In the end it was a straightforward victory for Max and a very good point scoring day.”

Horner admitted it frustrating not to have both drivers on the podium as Sergio Pérez lost out to Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s George Russell on the resumption of the race following a late virtual safety car.

A software error at the track meant Pérez was forced to slow towards the end of the mini sector towards the last few turns of the Paul Ricard track to prevent getting a penalty for exceeding the maximum sector time, meaning Russell was able to jump him.

However, it was good points for the team, with Verstappen and Pérez both outscoring Ferrari’s Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.

“It was frustrating we didn’t have Checo on the podium too, it was just bad timing for the virtual safety car for him, there was a software error so they were held longer than they should have been,” he said.

“We have to keep pushing this season and look to get the best out of every ounce of performance, there are lots of factors at play but today was a big day for us.”