How much did Verstappen benefit from his new engine? Horner responds

Verstappen made up several places on the first lap. But how much of it was down to the performance of a new engine? "Of course everything is a package but I don't think there was a significant advantage in terms of horsepower or anything like that today. All the overtaking Max did was on the brakes, not on a straight line," Horner said in the paddock.

Red Bull confirmed the decision earlier in the weekend. The five-place penalty was announced, but he failed to make it through to Q3. Verstappen was probably expecting to still start inside the top ten, but then he had to start from 17th. Horner admits this did make the team regret their decision briefly.

"We elected to take that engine here because it is a track that you can overtake at and we were regretting that at lunchtime. Sitting here now, we're quite grateful that we made that choice," the Red Bull boss said.

Red Bull tyres

The RB20 won its first Sunday race since the Spanish Grand Prix in June. In recent weeks, Verstappen was competitive in qualifying, but struggled on Sunday. Especially on tyres, the reigning world champion's car was often not as competitive as hoped.

"The team have worked very hard to try and understand these tyres. It varies. Seven days ago it was a different scenario and Ferrari were looking incredibly good on their degradation. I think we made a step forward in Austin. Winning that sprint race, we didn't feel like we capitalised enough of that weekend. The upgrades that we've bought, we really started to get the most out of them here it felt like over the weekend in Brazil," said the British team boss.

This article has been created in collaboration with Corwin Kunst