Horner: "He was on the radio when the tyre burst"

Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner is upset about Max Verstappen's flat tyre and says that both he and Verstappen didn't see the blowout coming. The team boss enjoyed the fight that Verstappen had with Valtteri Bottas.

Tyre burst out of nowhere

"We think he hit some debris as he was on the radio with his race engineer at the time the tire hit. It was something that caused the tire to fail immediately. He managed to overtake Valtteri and we had the speed, so it's very annoying not to be second today," said Horner about Verstappen at Sky Sports F1.

Red Bull Racing didn't know exactly when they wanted to bring Verstappen in. "Then you have to choose the one you want to beat. We actually chose Lewis because Valtteri should have had the speed on new tyres. But his speed wasn't great and he made a lot of mistakes," continued the British team boss.

Fight between Verstappen and Bottas

"We listened to other teams' radios, we were aware of the damage Valtteri was doing and that also gave Lewis a head start on the pace and makes it even more important for Max to put pressure on him," Horner continues.

"I was just talking to Max and he said Valtteri gave him a small brake test that was 'fair play' in the corner where he made the mistake. But he was patient enough to wait and use DRS to overtake him in turn two," concludes Horner.