Horner insists one-two was on the cards in Miami: "He lost 30HP"

Christian Horner was full of praise for Max Verstappen who kept his cool to fend off a late charge from Charles Leclerc after the safety car. It was looking like one of Verstappen's easiest F1 career wins, but a late safety car allowed Ferrari to roll the dice. However, Horner insists Red Bull got lucky with the Italian not pitting Leclerc for soft tyres. 

Excitement at the end

Pierre Gasly, Verstappen's former teammate, crashed into Lando Norris to create the safety car situation. This meant that Verstappen lost a seven-second advantage. When DRS returned, Leclerc was breathing down the Dutchman's neck but Horner sees his driver hold his nerve. 

"We gave everything we had. After the safety car, we were lucky Ferrari didn't pit because they could've put on the soft tyre. At least that neutralised things. Once Leclerc was in the DRS, we couldn't shake him off. There's so much pressure, that it's easy to lock a wheel but Max kept it clean and didn't make any mistakes," Horner told Sky Sports. 

Horner went onto confirm that Red Bull's tactic was to look after the tyres in the opening laps before going for the overtake. This went to plan and Verstappen held this position and looked comfortable. But things switched around after the safety car. "All the temperatures came down, everything went into the window. DRS was so powerful. Leclerc had a moment and Max used it. He broke the DRS and built the lead," he added. 

Reliability issues

In every race Verstappen has finished in 2022, he has won. Whilst issues with reliability seemed to have improved, question marks dangled over Sergio Perez's car with a sensor issue. Horner insists a one-two was on the cards without this problem. 

"Reliability will be an issue. We had a sensor issue on Checo's engine. The guys did well to move them around but he lost 30HP with that. He was losing half a second, he could've finished second," Horner added.