Max Verstappen was “in a class of his own” at the German Grand Prix, Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes.
The Dutchman found himself bottled up behind Valtteri Bottas in the early laps at Hockenheim, but once he took over the lead as drivers switched back and forth between slicks and intermediates, there was no stopping him.
“It was unbelievable. Out of the five stops, we got one pit stop wrong, thinking we would need that [medium] tyre to get to the end of the race. You’ve just got to keep your head,” Horner commented.
“Max’s restarts were unbelievable. We had the opportunity to put another new set of tyres on and that gave Max a really good tyre to build a gap, then with the new slicks, he was away.”
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In a race reminiscent of Donington in 1993 with track conditions constantly evolving, there was a constant theme throughout it all…
“We were just making sure we kept the right tyre at the right time,” the Red Bull boss stated. “Different things are happening at different corners.
“Those kind of races he excels at. He was in total control when he got to the front and once he got clean air he was in a class of his own.”
The result has moved Verstappen to within 63 points of the championship lead currently held by Lewis Hamilton, and after this victory, another historically strong venue follows this weekend at the Hungaroring.
“We’ve won two races, a couple of other ‘shoulda been’s’,” Horner commented. “We’ve got a great race car and hopefully we can sign off with a good result in Budapest.
“We were quick here in dry conditions so we fancied our chances, but we’ve seen tyres playing such a key role this year so it’s impossible to predict.”
Verstappen also believes it is still too early to think about potentially producing a big comeback in the title race.
“I don’t know, they are so miles ahead in the championship,” he told Crash.net. “It’s still a lot, isn’t it? It’s more than two victories, and they are still the dominant team, I think.
“It was just very tricky out there and it’s easy to make a mistake, as you could see so, yeah, it was not their day.
“We managed to do a good job but we still have to work very hard to close that gap and actually really fight for the victory every single race so still a lot of work to do,” he added.
“But of course when you can, it’s good to score more points than them.”