Christian Horner defends his driver after Verstappen has words with Russell

George Russell collided with Max Verstappen early on lap one of the sprint race, leaving significant damage to the sidepod of the World Champion's car, which team boss Christian Horner claims to have cost him up to three-quarters of a second.

Horner will always be one of the first to jump to the defence of his star driver, and today was no different, as the Brit believes that "He (Verstappen) was understandably annoyed with that, and voiced his opinion to George."

Continuing and chalking it up to the competitive spirit of Verstappen, Horner said, "It was probably good that he [George] left his crash helmet on," he said jokingly. "You can understand that. He is a competitive driver, and when you get damage to your car, you will be disappointed." Horner then went on to describe how he thought the incident played out. "Turn 1, I can live with... Turn 2 is hard racing between hard racers. George runs him out wide (at turn 3)."