Horner: The collision between Max and Lando was inevitable

Christian Horner considers the collision between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris on lap 64 of the Austrian Grand Prix a racing incident. The head of Red Bull Racing called Max’s 10-second penalty a severe one.

Christian Horner: “I think something like that was inevitable, given the close battle they’ve had with each other over the last few weeks.

By then Lando had already received four warnings for infringements, so I think he would have received a 5 second time penalty anyway. And I would call what happened a racing incident.

In my opinion, Max’s 10 second penalty is quite a severe one. Fortunately, it didn’t affect his race, because by then Max had already suffered a puncture and lost ground. But all this is very worrying.

On a day when none of our main rivals scored points, we managed to score ten points in the Drivers’ Championship and sixteen points in the Constructors’ Championship, with McLaren losing only two points to us.

I think Lando was still angry about the sprint. Max passed him in turn four without DRS, after which Lando let his teammate pass as well. He probably had a slight hangover from the sprint.

It’s a shame it happened this way because we had everything under control. During the last pitstop Lando was able to get back into the fight and had a tyre advantage that was enough to get him into the DRS zone.

Everyone knows that Max is fighting hard on the track, and Lando was trying to make up for lost time in the sprint. It was inevitable that they would collide at some point.

They probably won’t play padel tennis together tomorrow, but I’m sure they’ll talk it out. They’re tough riders, but they talk openly with each other. I have no doubt about it.”