Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Formula One now looking like a two-horse race

SPIELBERG – Red Bull boss Christian Horner said the Formula One season was turning into a two-horse race between the McLaren drivers after his team had a home Austrian Grand Prix to forget on June 29.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen retired on the first lap after being driven into by Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, while teammate Yuki Tsunoda was last of the 16 finishers.

As a result of Lando Norris leading home teammate Oscar Piastri in a McLaren one-two, Verstappen was left languishing 61 points behind championship leader Piastri.

“The buffer they have is significant. It looks very much like a two-horse race. They (McLaren) have got a cushion to the rest of the field,” said Horner.

“For us, we focus one race at a time. We don’t even think about championships. We just focus on the next race at Silverstone, what can we achieve there; same with Spa, same with Budapest.

“You try to grab every opportunity, like we did in Imola (where Verstappen won).”

Verstappen had qualified a lowly seventh, partly undone by yellow flags as a result of a spin by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in the final moments of the June 28 session.

In the race, he was the unfortunate victim as Antonelli hit him after misjudging under braking into turn 3, ending Verstappen’s race in the process.

Tsunoda struggled all afternoon and was later given a 10-second penalty for a clash with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, which resulted in the Japanese driver finishing last.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton took third and fourth places to move their team above Mercedes into second spot in the constructors’ standings.

Horner said: “Well, that was a home race to forget. We got unlucky yesterday with the yellow flag, which puts us in a position where you’re unfortunately in the crash zone and Kimi just lost it in spectacular fashion.

“Max was basically through the corner and getting back on the power and he just got wiped out. So, an unfortunate mistake by Kimi. He’s apologised to Max but for us, it killed our afternoon.”

“I don’t think we should have had the pace to race the McLarens today, so well done to Lando. I think we would have been in that fight with the Ferraris. But when you’re out on turn 3, there’s not much you can do about it,” he added.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was more positive, saluting his Ferrari team after their much improved performances at the Red Bull Ring.

“That’s mega-progress for us as a team today,” said the seven-time champion.

“Thanks to all the guys at the factory for the upgrades this weekend, which looked only small on paper, but were massive for us in performance.

“We’re not a minute down on McLaren and that’s positive and I am happy with it, even if I am still struggling with the balance of the car in the race.

“We keep working at it and we made progress this weekend and we found a problem with my brakes and that’s positive too. So we are improving and everyone in the team is happier.

“And we were much calmer and more methodical too, so I am proud of them for that.”

Leclerc said: “We are working in the right direction and our upgrades helped us to close the gap. But it is still a significant gap to McLaren but we had a positive weekend overall and we maximised our potential.” REUTERS, AFP