Crimson Bull thought Max Verstappen had the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix underneath management and was extra more likely to be threatened by Charles Leclerc earlier than Lando Norris’ late problem for victory.
Verstappen led from pole place and pulled out a snug lead across the pit cease part, pulling additional away early within the second stint to go away Norris defending from Leclerc for a spell. The McLaren driver was managing his tires, nonetheless, and upped his tempo within the closing laps to complete simply 0.7s behind Verstappen on the flag after a tense chase that fell simply quick.
“Effectively Stefano (Domenicali) has been asking us for weeks to attempt to make it nearer on the finish!” Horner mentioned. “No, in all seriousness, within the first stint on the medium it felt like we had all the pieces underneath management, Max was in a position to construct as much as an eight-second hole across the pit cease and the automotive was performing very, very properly on the medium.
“Significantly a number of the areas we’d been weak on Friday in sector two, he was very a lot setting the tempo. After we modified onto the laborious tire, the primary half of the stint was completely high quality. However because the gauge wears down on the tire, temperature turns into essential and we simply began to lose temperature within the tire and with that the efficiency began to [drop].
“We didn’t get as a lot out of the tire as Lando, who, at one level seemed very very like he was very a lot underneath strain from Leclerc. Instantly their automotive turned on and he began to come back laborious on the finish of the race.
“I feel the opposite factor that made it significantly anxious within the final stage of the race was that Max had already had three strikes on monitor limits. So Max couldn’t afford to make a single mistake on the restrict and he delivered brilliantly regardless of appreciable strain, he was in a position to handle it and preserve Lando simply out of the DRS.
“I feel for the primary 40 laps we have been in a very good window and would have managed the hole. After he got here out and the hole dropped to 6 seconds he was in a position to maintain it there. At that time our eyes have been on Leclerc, was he going to make the step and pose a problem? However Lando, no matter window they managed to get their tire into, all of a sudden their automotive got here alive. It simply exhibits how delicate these vehicles are to the completely different situations.”
Crimson Bull had struggled all through apply however Verstappen was in a position to take pole and in the end maintain on for victory, and Horner believes the difficulties confronted earlier within the weekend led to a lack of know-how on the laborious tire that produced the distinction in efficiency late on.
“It labored out. Most likely with hindsight, we might have been higher working a tough on Friday, simply because we had opted to take two new laborious tires into the race and possibly it will have been higher to have gotten the knowledge on the tire.
“However whenever you take a look at the turnaround from Friday into Saturday to get the pole and to get the victory, it’s been an outstanding efficiency from the staff, but additionally Max has been unbelievable this weekend. He’s needed to work very laborious for each the pole and the victory.”
