Horner on Verstappen fending off both McLarens: 'Couldn't get anywhere near him'

Red Bull Racing's team principal, Christian Horner, has hailed the Austrian team's performance, led by Max Verstappen, who knew that getting the win was all down to 'being perfect'.

After the Grand Prix, a proud Horner faced the media and commented on the words of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko. "Helmut mentioned 50 laps there, but he missed out on the other three, which were phenomenal," Horner said to F1 TV. "And as he rightly says, Max has been absolutely imperious this weekend."

"I think the majority of the damage was done in that qualifying yesterday." The team boss states that afterwards, it was a fairly straightforward race, with Verstappen not needing to focus on the tires or details, but purely on staying out of trouble. "It was all about [giving] everything you've got and not a single mistake. And he had a car to work with as well and keep the McLarens behind him."

Horner wasn't worried about Verstappen making mistakes

Suzuka is known as a circuit where mistakes are heavily punished. A small mistake can put you out of the race. However, the Red Bull team boss wasn't concerned about the threat from the McLarens to Verstappen. "There was so little overtaking in that race that it was gonna take something Herculean, or a big mistake, to get the McLarens to make it past. It was all about being inch-perfect. Max knew that; he was quick where he needed to be. The last chicane, turn 11, they couldn't get anywhere near. He kept them just out of the DRS."

The team boss explains that they couldn't make the front wing adjustment during the first pit stop, which negatively affected Verstappen's second stint. " That compromised his second stint with a bit more understeer than he'd have probably liked. But again, playing with the tools, working with his engineering team, to help him with his diff settings and so on, to help that balance. Again a phenomenal team performance to extract every ounce of performance from the car this weekend."

Read also

International media explain how 'Killer' Verstappen was too much for McLaren in Japan

Verstappen on top, McLaren a flop: These are the winners and losers from the Japanese Grand Prix