Horner believes it "wouldn't have been a sensible call" to pit Verstappen earlier

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton managed to beat Red Bull and Max Verstappen through a well-worked out strategy. When Hamilton was catching up with Verstappen, he pitted for the medium tyres. By the end of the race, it was easy for Hamilton to overtake Verstappen's old hard tyres. 

Horner says it wouldn't have been the best option to pit Verstappen either before Hamilton pitted for mediums, or straight after. 

"We had track position, but I think Mercedes just had a quicker car in the race today to just follow within a second - and that was mighty impressive," Verstappen told Sky Sports. 

"It gave them all the options with the free stop. To have pitted Max from the lead with him a second behind, it wouldn't have been a sensible call from us. Max got everything out of the car as he could. By the end of the second sector, Lewis would have been ahead, so it didn't make any sense to concede track position. The only chance was to try to hang it out.

"To have pitted from the lead from the position we were in would have been an impossible call. They had nothing to lose and it worked out for them, but it's still been a hell of a weekend from Max - he's closed the gap to Valtteri to seven points."