Horner: Verstappen "would have been a real contender for the win today"

For Red Bull Racing, the Sakhir Grand Prix was a race to forget. Max Verstappen had to retire from a crash on the first lap due to a mistake by Charles Leclerc. Alexander Albon could not take advantage of the Mercedes' mistakes and finished sixth. Team boss Christian Horner speaks about a frustrating Grand Prix.

Verstappen had a chance of victory

“An incredibly frustrating end to the weekend with Max’s race being cut short on the opening lap through no fault of his own. He managed to avoid Valtteri who had a slide at Turn 2 which cost him a lot of momentum and then unfortunately Leclerc misjudged his braking and hit Perez. Max was forced to take avoiding action and subsequently hit the barrier, which was a great shame as he would have been a real contender for the win today," Horner said in the press release. 

"Alex survived contact in the opening lap but struggled for pace in the initial stint. He pitted for the hard tyre which he seemed more comfortable on and we then took a bit of a risk under the last safety car to put the soft tyre on which he used to good effect to move up to P6," the British team boss continued.

Congratulations to Perez and Racing Point

Albon survived the contact in the opening lap, but struggled with the pace in the first stint. "It was an entertaining race for the fans at home and congratulations to Racing Point and Sergio Perez for their first victories in Formula One," Horner concludes.