Christian Horner saw his Red Bull Racing drivers finish fourth and fifth at Silverstone on Sunday, but Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo had vastly different days.
Verstappen started and finished fourth, battling early on with Sebastian Vettel, including a side-by-side battle with the German through Stowe and Vale, but once the Scuderia Ferrari driver got ahead during the pit stop cycle, it was a more straightforward afternoon for the Dutch driver.
Red Bull boss Horner felt it was important that Verstappen make a late second pit stop, with the tyres obviously marginal before failing, with problems befalling both of the Ferrari drivers towards the end.
“It was a great performance from both of our drivers at Silverstone today,” said Horner. “Max thankfully ran to the finish and provided a lot of entertainment in his rigorous defence in his duel with Sebastian which was firm but fair racing.
“Stopping early on a one-stop strategy we always thought the tyres would be quite marginal at the end. As soon as we saw Kimi having issues with his tyre, without being able to have track position on him, we decided to make the stop and Max did a good job in bringing the car home and seeing the chequered flag for the first time since Monte Carlo.”
Horner was full of praise for Ricciardo, who climbed from nineteenth on the grid after a qualifying engine issue to finish an excellent fifth, with a number of great passes, the last of which was on Nico Hülkenberg in the final laps.
“Daniel’s recovery drive today was excellent, making a lot of places in the early laps he then lost out at Luffield and had to do it all again and to go from 20th to fifth was a great turnaround from yesterday’s problems,” said Horner.
