Horner 'nearly had a heart attack' with Verstappen's late USGP traffic

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner joked Mick Schumacher "nearly gave me a heart attack" as Max Verstappen neared victory at the United States Grand Prix.

As title rivals Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton completed their penultimate lap at the Circuit of the Americas, the pair were rapidly gaining ground on Haas driver Schumacher.

With one second separating the lead pair through the final sector, Verstappen closed up on backmarker Schumacher leading Horner to fear Hamilton would, in turn, close up on the Dutchman.

Horner needn't have worried, however, as Verstappen was able to use his DRS to storm past the German with Hamilton narrowly outside the window to activate his own system.

“Mick on the last lap cost us [time] but he also gifted us the DRS," Horner told Sky Sports F1.

"He nearly gave me a heart attack as well but Max, he just managed to keep enough in hand and that was a classy drive for sure.”

Red Bull triggered an intriguing tactical battle when pitting Verstappen on lap 10 in a successful bid to pass Hamilton by using the undercut.

In the final stint, Mercedes stopped Hamilton eight laps later than Verstappen with the extreme delta between the two tyre sets creating the grandstand finish.

Joking he had "aged about 25 years during that race", Horner explained winning in Texas is a "big" result for Red Bull.

“They all count, every single point," added Horner. "It was big for us to beat Mercedes here, to get the pole, the first pole other than Merc for seven years, get that win against Lewis here who we know is a phenomenal driver around here.

“That is a big win for us.”

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