Horner: Vettel crash "knocked Verstappen off a guaranteed podium"
F1 News
Christian Horner has expressed his frustration with Sebastian Vettel after his mistake resulted in a heavy collision with Max Verstappen. Both drivers continued the race despite trips across the gravel. Horner remarks how "incredible" it was that the Red Bull car remained intact.
Likewise, with Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, Horner believes Vettel's crash ended a certain podium for the flying Dutchman. Verstappen ended up finishing behind his teammate, Pierre Gasly.
"Obviously from our perspective, it was very frustrating because it knocked Max off a guaranteed podium," Horner is quoted by Autosport.
"Which spot on the podium, we don't know what it would be. He would certainly have been second on track, and then whether Valtteri could catch him or not we would have to wait and see."
The crash, a similar accident to Verstappen's crash with Daniel Ricciardo in Baku, left Verstappen going sideways across the gravel trap after being launched into the air from the kerbs. Remarkably, Verstappen kept it rolling and avoided getting beached.
Horner was surprised to see his 21-year-old driver continue in the Grand Prix and declared the aftermath as "incredible".
"That was very frustrating and obviously it was remarkable the car held together. To keep going with the damage he had, that was quite incredible and at least he managed to finish the race and get some points out of it," Horner added.
"It is frustrating because he had obviously made a great pass on Seb and I can only imagine that it was a complete misjudgement by Seb to lock up and hit him the way he did."