Verstappen late stop was cautionary measure - Horner

Red Bull Racing's decision to bring in Max Verstappen for a tyre change in the closing stages of the British GP was justified by Ferrari's sudden tyre failures.

Verstappen was running fifth with just three laps to go when drama ensued in the Ferrari camp as Kimi Raikkonen and then Sebastian Vettel  were hit with a puncture and delaminating of their rubber.

Witnessing Raikkonen's issue, the Red Bull pit wall was right on the case and immediately decided to call Verstappen in as precautionary measure. 

"Stopping early on a one stop strategy we always thought the tyres would be quite marginal at the end," said Christian Horner.

"As soon as we saw Kimi having issues with his tyre, without being able to have track position on him, we decided to make the stop and Max did a good job in bringing the car home and seeing the checkered flag for the first time since Monte Carlo."

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Ultimately, it was the right call as Vettel 's subsequent tyre problem demonstrated, enabling the Dutchman to move up to fourth at the checkered flag. 

Verstappen appeared to be on the ragged edge for most of the afternoon, nicely battling Vettel for position in the early part of the race but often locking his tyres in the later period. 

"You have to be realistic - we were just not fast enough for the podium on pace," said Verstappen.

"I think this was the best we could do. I got lucky with Seb's puncture, so this is OK. And I finished the race as well.

"You never really know, I just started locking a lot the inside-front wheel, the left front. Just to be sure, we pitted."

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