“Mercedes had a rare off day and it was important to convert that”– Christian Horner on his team’s recent win in Monaco.
While Red Bull amassed 37 points with a win and P4 in Monaco, Mercedes struggled with a DNF and a 7th place finish; though the fastest lap point gave some dignity, it was Red Bull’s day.
Christian Horner talked about how critical was it to make the most out of Mercedes’ failure, as they seemed to struggle across the weekend at Monte Carlo.
“It was important to take our chances here,” said Horner. “Mercedes had a rare off day, and it was important to convert that. So as a team, we’ve done that.
“We leave here leading both championships for the first time in the hybrid era so that’s really encouraging. We know nobody’s getting carried away, there’s still an awfully long way to go in this championship, [but] to be as close as we are, at this stage, is very encouraging.”
Feel for Ferrari
Charles Leclerc would have started from pole, hadn’t the last moment crisis prevented him from participating in the race. Horner feels sad about what Ferrari had to deal with.
“You’ve got to feel for them a bit,” said Horner. “Obviously they made a calculated risk and it didn’t pay off,” he said. He then said that Verstappen was initially frustrated with Leclerc’s Saturday crash but soon moved on.
“Max was disappointed yesterday,” said Horner, “we didn’t get to see what that lap could have delivered. But he dealt with his frustration well and came out today, and when the opportunity presented itself, he took it with both hands.
“Also today Checo drove a very, very strong race. So a great performance from him as well. Max benefited from, obviously, Charles’ misfortune so it’s bad luck for them today,” said Horner.
“But Max really took control of the race from the start and literally controlled the whole afternoon. He was quick when he needed to be, was looking after his tyres very well and [did] a phenomenal performance.”
