Horner has mixed feelings: 'Should have taken more points away from Mercedes'

After missing out on victory in the opening race in Bahrain, Christian Horner was very happy with Max Verstappen's win in Imola. For Perez, however, the race went less well.

Outstanding performance

In front of the Sky Sports cameras, the Red Bull Racing team boss praised his star driver. "A great performance from Max today. He had a mega start and dared to overtake Lewis [Hamilton] on the inside."

Horner also briefly mentioned the difficult conditions in Imola, but despite this Verstappen drove almost flawlessly. "That little moment on the restart was the only mistake he made all afternoon and he deserved the win."

Difficult race for Perez

In qualifying, Perez still managed to take second place and beat Verstappen, but on Sunday the Mexican had a much harder time. "He had such a good Saturday, but the race just didn't go his way this afternoon. He had a few mistakes, especially the spin behind Carlos [Sainz]'s Ferrari. We should have taken many more points away from Mercedes today."

Still, Horner takes issue with Alexander Albon's replacement. "There will be some great races from him in the future. In clean air his pace was good. Just got stuck in the DRS train."