F1 News
Horner on Verstappen and his race engineer: 'Like an old married couple'
Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix by quite a margin, as the Dutchman finished over 24 seconds ahead of second-placed Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen's only threat seemed to be himself, as the two-time World Champion pushed too hard with the track limits and was close to a penalty as he was black-and-white flagged as a result.
Verstappen drove unchallenged to victory last Sunday. However, the Dutchman crossed the white lines three times, and crossing over the line a fourth time would have resulted in a five-second time penalty. However, this penalty would not have mattered, as he already had a 24-second margin over Hamilton in second place.
Horner sees special relationship between Verstappen and engineer
Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, informed the Dutchman several times that he was close to a penalty and therefore asked if Verstappen did not want to take any more risks. The Dutchman rejected this, however, as he still wanted to earn the fastest lap of the race, which he eventually did.
"His engineer was just informing him of one more strike, and it's a penalty and not to take any risks in the fastest lap. The relationship they have is more like an old married couple, almost debating about which channel of television they should be watching. But Max was totally in control, and he was aware of the risk and was still able to do the fastest lap quite comfortably with the tyres that he had on the car," Horner told GPblog and others.