For Horner the title battle is effectively on: 'The analysis will show this'

Given the similar speed Red Bull Racing had to McLaren, and the fact that Max Verstappen went longer than Oscar Piastri on that first stint on medium tyres, could it have been possible for Red Bull and the Dutchman to beat McLaren and the Australian if they had pitted sooner?

"I think they were all flat out, the hard tyre was very robust today, so there wasn't really any tyre saving. So I think, look, let's focus on the positives. We qualified on pole, we finished second, and we had the pace," said Horner to media present at Jeddah, including GPblog.

However, the start of the weekend was very different. McLaren's pace seemed ominous and their advantage over their rivals forecasted a dominant 1-2 for the Woking-based team.

Such expectations were not met, with Lando Norris' crash leaving the British driver to start the race in P10, and with Verstappen edging Piastri out in the pole position fight on Saturday evening.

Whilst Lando Norris believed McLaren didn't have the advantage, Oscar Piastri disagreed. Horner, also has a mind of his own when it comes to the matter. "On Friday [it] looked like McLaren had got 1.2 seconds on the whole field. So we'll take encouragement out of this race, that on both medium and hard tires, I'm sure the analysis will show that we were quicker than them this weekend."