Horner feared Hamilton's "advantage" would cost Verstappen US victory

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has revealed even he had doubts Max Verstappen could make the team's aggressive strategy work to win the United States Grand Prix.

Championship leader Verstappen extended his championship lead to 12 points over Lewis Hamilton after holding off the Mercedes driver's late-race charge on fresher tyres.

The tyre delta was created by Red Bull opting to pit Verstappen early during both pit windows after Hamilton initially got the jump on the Dutchman off the front row.

Hamilton cut a gap of over eight seconds down to just one by the chequered flag with Verstappen nursing eight-lap older tyres and Horner told Sky Sports F1: "I really didn't think he was going to pull that off.

"Lewis, eight-lap newer tyres, the first set of hards that had come off, we were pretty much down to the canvas and then thinking 'we aren't going to have much left at the end here'.

"Really, the way he managed that tyre through the last stint to make sure he had enough for the last five or six laps, we talked about getting out of turn 11 at the beginning of the race, it was about getting out of it at the end that was going to be crucial."

Horner has experience of losing a lead at the end of a race after a long chase after Jenson Button got the better of Sebastian Vettel in the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix.

"Lewis, you know at the end of the race he is so strong and he went long and bought himself an advantage," added Horner.

"To lose a race in the last two or three laps... we lost one in Montreal [2011] and that really hurt. To lose one here would have been really painful.

"Max just held on, he did a great job and managed the race really smartly and had just enough at the end there."

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Lando Norris on brink of FIA penalty after Japanese Grand Prix disaster

• 29 minutes ago

Toto Wolff on Mercedes rumours: Verstappen latest, 11-year deal for George Russell?

• 52 minutes ago

Fernando Alonso to retire on one condition as 'mental strain' takes its toll

• 1 hour ago

F1 Race Today: Japanese Grand Prix 2026 start times, schedule, TV channel and FREE live stream

• 1 hour ago

Toto Wolff gets into awkward interview with Sky Sports F1 pundit: 'We did a setup twerk'

• 2 hours ago

Max Verstappen summoned by Red Bull boss over incident with journalist at Japanese Grand Prix

• 2 hours ago