Horner knows why McLaren lost in Japan: 'They didn't have Verstappen'

"I think that it was absolutely inch perfect," Horner sums up his driver's last Q3 flying lap to media present at Suzuka after the Dutchman's win on Sunday.

Verstappen was still down on Norris as he passed by the Sector 2 marker, so it was in Sector 3 where the Dutchman secured an unexpected pole position in an inferior machinery, at least compared to that of his McLaren rivals, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Horner knows exactly where his driver did the crucial damage.

"He absolutely nailed the last chicane, and that was just enough. But it was in a car that the theoreticals were behind McLaren as fast as that. Max extracted every ounce of performance, McLaren didn't get that obviously yesterday so that was the difference," concluded Horner.