Horner: "It's still very, very close with Mercedes, especially against Lewis"

Lewis Hamilton seemed to keep the pressure on Max Verstappen, but the opposite is true. According to Christian Horner, the Dutchman was not on the limit during Max's home race.

Red Bull weak in Hungary

With victories at Spa and Zandvoort Red Bull Racing has recovered well from the lesser races in England and Hungary. Verstappen took back the lead in the championship from Lewis Hamilton. The updates Mercedes came up with at Silverstone seemed to give the championship team an advantage over Red Bull, especially in Hungary, but according to Horner, Mercedes were not strong there but Red Bull were weak that weekend.

"I think in Hungary we didn't set the car up in the best way," the team boss told Motorsport-Total.com. "We left with the feeling that we didn't get as much out of the car as was actually in it." In Hungary, Mercedes had the upper hand in qualifying, but in the race Red Bull's true speed was not evident due to the crashes at the first corner. In the end, Verstappen came no further than ninth place.

Verstappen had speed to spare

In Zandvoort, the picture was much clearer according to Horner. "In both the long and short runs we were competitive," Horner said. "But it's still very, very close with Mercedes, especially against Lewis." However, according to Horner, Verstappen was not driving on the limit during the race. "It looked like we had one or maybe two tenths left. Max could use this when he needed it to close a three-second gap."