Horner responds to Verstappen penalty and addresses poor pit stop
- Corwin Kunst
Christian Horner thinks the 10-second penalty Max Verstappen received for his part in the crash with Norris is "a bit heavy". However, the Red Bull Racing chief thinks it is more important to ensure that things cannot go wrong again with the pit stops.
"I'm just looking to see, first of all, what happened at the pit stop because we lost obviously a bit of time there," Horner told Sky Sports. According to the team boss, it did not cost Verstappen the race, but, "it put us in a compromised position."
Norris was able to put a lot of pressure on Verstappen, who initially held firm. However, on yet another attack, things went wrong and both drivers hit each other, resulting in punctures. "For me, it looked like there was enough space up there for Lando, and he already had the violation with the four strikes of track limits, but it’s one of those things, so we’ll bounce back next weekend."
Tough duel
Horner saw Norris use his elbows, but Verstappen was not intimidated by that. The Dutchman defended hard, but Horner has no problem with that in itself. "I thought the penalty was harsh. That's racing sometimes, it's frustrating particularly, here at this race. But that's the way racing goes sometimes. We had an incredible win yesterday, we were controlling the race nicely, but that's Formula 1."