Horner happy with Verstappen: 'I was actually quite surprised'

Max Verstappen lived up to his role of favourite during the Mexican Grand Prix by taking victory on Sunday evening. Christian Horner looked full of admiration to the performance of the Dutchman, who increased his lead in the world championship.

At the start, Verstappen managed to take first place. "Max found a bit of space on the outside and I was actually quite surprised that Mercedes gave him that space," Horner is quoted by Motorsport.com. "They seemingly wanted to defend the inside, although I have to say anyway that Valtteri played that very 'fair'". Verstappen then braked very late, taking first place. "In that respect, Max really did time his action perfectly though. He grabbed the slipstream, did his thing and was able to control the race well afterwards."

The victory is a far cry from the first two days of racing. In them, Red Bull Racing struggled to reach their own level, which caused Verstappen to miss out on the front row of the grid during qualifying, among other things. He had to start third as a result, but in hindsight Horner is happy with that.

"In the end, I think it was perfect to come from the second row of the grid, that's still the very best place to have," the team boss stated. Third place came partly due to a mistake by Yuki Tsunoda. "I've seen the footage back now and I have to say that they could have helped Yuki a bit more with extra information. But it's 'all's well that ends well'. In the end, it wasn't bad at all to start from this spot."