Horner: 'Brutally frustrating but potential is there'

Despite Red Bull Racing's double DNF nightmare in Bahrian, team boss Christian Horner has no doubts about the potential of the outfit's RB14.

Max Verstappen was reduced to an 'also ran' at the outset following an overoptimistic move on Lewis Hamilton which left the Dutchman the worse for wear with a puncture and a damaged gearbox.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit's illusions in the desert were smashed a second time, almost simultaneously, when Daniel Ricciardo ground to a halt after a total power shut down.

The successive misfortunes may have cost Red Bull a race win suggest Horner.

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"Ifs, buts and maybes, but we could see throughout the weekend our pace was good, and it was stronger in the race than it was in qualy," he said.

"Daniel commented that even in the two laps that he was able to do, he was able to close pretty comfortably on Kimi.

"And Max the feeling he was getting from the car, the fact that he was on the same tire he used to line up and pass Lewis, showed that the potential was really there.

"A brutally frustrating race for us because we had again another very competitive race car.

"So to lose Daniel with what looks like a sudden power loss to the car, which looks like a failure within the energy store, on lap two when he was already catching Kimi and looking in good shape, was extremely frustrating."

Horner labeled the clash between Verstappan and Hamilton a racing incident between two hard racers.

"It was hard racing between two very competitive drivers. It is just unfortunate that there was some contact," he said.

"It robbed the fans ultimately of a great race because I think, I genuinely do believe that the last couple of races we have had a car capable of beating the Ferrari.

"We don’t have the points to show for it. Thankfully the next race is only one week away."

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