Red Bull bosses cut their former star Sebastian Vettel no slack for wiping out their current star Max Verstappen at Silverstone.
The Dutchman had finally got the better of Charles Leclerc after an epic duel, eased ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly and then swept around the outside of the second Ferrari at Stowe to claim third.
As Verstappen defended from Vettel into the Vale chicane, however, the German locked up, ploughing into the Red Bull and sending both into gravel.
“It is frustrating because he had obviously made a great pass on Seb and I can only imagine that it was a complete misjudgement by Seb to lock up and hit him the way he did,” team boss Christian Horner commented.
“It was remarkable the car held together. To keep going with the damage he [Max] had, that was quite incredible and at least he managed to finish the race and get some points out of it.”
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Had the incident not happened, Horner feels Verstappen could have threatened the Mercedes 1-2.
“Obviously from our perspective, it was very frustrating because it knocked Max off a guaranteed podium,” he stated.
“Which spot on the podium, we don’t know what it would be.
“He would certainly have been second on track, and then whether Valtteri [Bottas] could catch him or not we would have to wait and see.”
As for Verstappen himself, he accepted Vettel’s apology, with the Ferrari driver coming to see him in parc ferme.
He did, however, believe the collision could have been avoided.
“He could see I was going to close the door on the inside,” he told Racer. “He should’ve backed off… here I think he could expect me to close the door and not go ahead.
“He out-braked himself and locked up and hit my car, but we already spoke to each other, he apologised so, again, what can you do?”
