Horner on fight between Verstappen and Perez: 'Very important to Max'

Sergio Perez was told to drive four-tenths above his 'target'. According to Horner, this had to do with reliability issues. "It was when we thought that we had the issue with the driveshaft, so it was a matter of just trying to build in a little bit of margin," he said.

Horner defends Perez

Perez did want to know if Verstappen, who was five seconds behind him, was driving the same lap times. The Red Bull team boss could sympathise with the Mexican. "There's always going to be that when you're the lead car," Horner smartly answered. "You always want to know that the tail car has hit the target first." Horner himself was concerned with other matters: "I think for us as a team, we were concerned about if there was a reliability issue, how do we manage that?"

Fastest lap important to Verstappen

In the end, the Dutchman went away with the fastest race lap. "It was obvious why he was asking." Horner allowed it to happen. "I think, inevitably, Max said on the radio the point for the fastest lap meant a great deal to him, and there was no reason for us not to let either he or Checo have a crack at it.'