Verstappen was “immaculate” in Styrian GP “masterclass” – Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has described Max Verstappen’s Styrian Grand Prix victory as a “masterclass”.

Horner has also declared himself “encouraged” by what he felt was the team’s “most dominant win” against Mercedes all season given its performance at the Red Bull Ring.

Verstappen cruised to victory, managing his tyres and maintaining a comfortable advantage over Mercedes title rival Lewis Hamilton, who finished 35 seconds behind after a late-race pit stop to secure the fastest lap on fresher tyres.

Horner said: “The whole team’s working tremendously well at the moment. The only hiccup we had in that race was the pit stop for Checo, other than that it was an immaculate performance, particularly by Max who just managed the race so well.

“The one-stop [strategy] was the quickest route for him, we could see Lewis’ tyres were starting to open up so we were mindful of that.

"But the way he controlled the race, the way he built the gap, that’s the most dominant win we’ve had so far this year against Mercedes, so that’s very encouraging.

“They had a free stop behind us, effectively, and we were fully expecting them to pull the trigger on that and with a bit of weather around you just didn’t know what was going to happen.

“Particularly with the state of Lewis’ front tyre, you could see a big blister forming around that tyre.

"But we were very much focused on our race and we had the time, thankfully, with the gap, that we would have been able to cover any move they may have made.

“Max controlled the race fantastically well and it was a masterclass.”

Red Bull ready for more of the same

Sergio Perez finished fourth in the second Red Bull, with a small mistake at the pit stop costing him vital seconds and leaving him to cross the line half a second behind Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Horner added: “[Sergio] drove the wheels off the car today. It’s a shame the pit stop didn’t go better for him because he would have maintained the track position pretty easy, but then his fightback was impressive.”

Next weekend the teams will race again at the Red Bull Ring, in the last event in a hectic triple-header, with Verstappen in with a chance to secure Red Bull’s fifth consecutive victory.

Horner added: “You’ve got to take it one day at a time. This championship is such a long route and I think today we’ll take the lessons and try to apply them next week.

“We’ve just got to keep this momentum going from this weekend and apply it to next weekend."

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