Christian Horner praises Max Verstappen for his outstanding drive at the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend. The Dutchman went on to win the race from 17th on the grid after having a storming first lap. Horner compares it to Ayrton Senna‘s first lap at Donington Park over 20 years ago.
Verstappen was left on the back foot following the engine penalty and a horrible qualifying session at Interlagos. A delayed red flag made it impossible for the 27-year-old to improve his lap time and to get through into the final part. In the race, he flexed his muscles and delivered an impressive performance.
In wet conditions at Donington Park in 1993, Ayrton Senna dropped to fifth but quickly passed Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger, and Damon Hill. With a final move on Alain Prost, he took the lead by the end of the first lap. This drive is considered one of the greatest opening laps in F1 history.
“I thought his start was electric, and that first lap was, you know, up there with Donington 93, around the outside of Turn 3“, Horner said. “I think he passed, what, six cars on the first lap? And then he was the only car that was really making progress, being able to pick cars up so late on the brakes into Turn 1.
“You know, whether it was with Lewis [Hamilton], with Oscar Piastri, and then obviously at the restart with Esteban [Ocon]. And then he just controlled the race and pulled away, you know, with ease at sometimes a second a lap. So, on a pretty dreary day, he shone pretty brightly today.“
The Red Bull team boss continues to praise his driver and says that the best way to showcase the performance was on track.
“The best response is to do your talking on the track, and that’s what he’s done today“, Horner believes. “It was an attacking drive. To go from 17th to 1st, I think is one of the best drives of his career. And on a day where conditions are difficult, you see the differences in the drivers.“
He adds that the delayed red flag caused by Williams’ Franco Colapinto was one of a few surprises in the race. Many drivers complained about the bad weather, with McLaren‘s Oscar Piastri raising his voice multiple times on the team radio.
“There were a couple of surprises for me in that race. One was that it wasn’t red flagged sooner. There was a lot of drivers that were feeling that the conditions were too unsafe.“
Regarding the strategy, Horner says that Red Bull’s decision was purely due to the worsening weather and the tyres, Verstappen was on. The red flag was the lucky part in this situation.
“We could see the weather, obviously, was getting horrendous“, he explained. “His tyres were in good shape, though. So a new set of inters versus what he had was negligible. So we took the decision, look, let’s go long.
“And then, of course, our bad luck this morning was fortune this afternoon, when the race got red flagged and then it effectively gets neutralised.“
After the Brazilian GP, Formula 1 entered a three-week break ahead of the last three races, which form a triple header. One last Sprint weekend is also included and will stage at the Qatar GP.
Max Verstappen has a comfortable lead over McLaren‘s Lando Norris, who finished the race at Interlagos in a disappointing P6. In the constructors‘ standings, McLaren remains ahead of Ferrari and Red Bull.
