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While it may have cost the team a victory in the first race of the season, Red Bull manager Christian Horner believes Max Verstappen did the right thing by losing Lewis Hamilton ahead.
With 3 laps to go, the Dutchman managed to overtake the then Mercedes leader, but the athlete did so off the track at turn four. The Red Bull team received a message from race control that their driver had to return position to the opponent, so Verstappen did.
“We have received a message from the race director that Max must return the position to Lewis immediately. Max acted sportingly and missed him. Lewis then got enough of an advantage to win the race, ”Horner said.
After the race, Verstappen said he should have stayed ahead of the opponent, gained a bigger lead and won even after receiving a penalty. However, according to C. Horner, the judges could have imposed a harsher fine on the Dutch.
“There is no guarantee that they gave us 5 seconds. fine if it had been a good time. So Max did the right thing. “
“We saw that by increasing the pace, both Mercedes drivers covered turn four more widely. We went into control of the race with the question, can this be done? With such a persistent fight, such actions can cost a few tenths of a second. They did it wheel after wheel. Then the race director told them to follow the limits of the track, otherwise a fine will be imposed. “
“Obviously Max went off the track on that turn. Even before the race, it was clear to everyone that after overtaking the opponent, he had to get back to his position. The team, instructed by the race control, told Max to do it and he did it. “
