Horner fires fresh shot at Mercedes over upgrade claims

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has hit back at Mercedes after technical director James Allison suggested that Red Bull had brought 'a downgrade' to the Canadian Grand Prix.

Horner's team had a nightmare start to the weekend in Canada, with an ERS issue for Max Verstappen in practice limiting their running even further after rain washed out much of Friday's running.

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Mercedes, meanwhile, topped the timesheets with new upgrades, and converted this to pole with George Russell in qualifying.

With Sergio Perez out in Q1 for the second weekend in a row and Verstappen only second, it seemed that the gap to Red Bull had been closed even further.

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At the Canadian Grand Prix, Allison jabbed that it looked as if Red Bull's "upgrade was a downgrade," and hoped "that would really mess them up."

The two teams never seem shy of landing punches on each other, and Horner responded in typical fashion after Verstappen beat Russell to victory on race day.

“Even with our downgrade, we managed to beat their upgrade,” said Horner, pointing to the fact that Mercedes could only manage P3 and P4 with their new improvements. “It was a rewarding race to win.

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“The last couple of races have been more choppy waters for us, but we have still managed to win two out of the last three races," he added, alluding to how close Lando Norris came to victory and how off the pace Red Bull were in Monaco.

“We had a pole in Imola, we managed to match the pole time here with a car that both drivers are feeling its deficiencies. So there is a lot of focus on that to see if we can improve that.

“So I think despite having won six of the nine races - we are going to have to be top of our game to keep eking out a gap."

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