Horner: 'An unbelievable race nailed in the first lap by mature Max'

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner took his hat off to Max Verstappen for achieving an unbelievable drive in which the young Dutchman showed that he was an old head on a young pair of shoulders.

Verstappen stormed off the grid in hot pursuit of a leading pair of Silver Arrows and Kimi Raikkonen, first over-running poleman Valtteri Bottas before edging ahead of the Ferrari when the Finn ran deep into Turn 3.

The move proved crucial in a race in which a calm and composed Verstappen perfectly managed both his pace and, more importantly, his tyres.

"It's a dream result, a Red Bull car, Max driving, an unbelievable race and it was absolutely nailed in the first lap," enthused Horner after the race, speaking to Sky F1.

"Hat's off to him, a really mature race because the tyres were so crucial, you see the blisters and everything that was going on, and he just managed to keep those temperatures down and manage it all the way through."

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While Daniel Ricciardo was put out of contention early on with a heavily blistered left rear supersoft tyre, before an exhaust failure sidelined the Aussie permanently, Verstappen made his tyres last, skillfully treading cautiously in the corners that mattered in terms of degradation and upping the pace elsewhere.

"Unbelievable, he was keeping the rear left cooler than the rear right!" said Horner.

"And the rear left is the one that takes all the load.

"It was hot today and the load on the two last corners, they're massive, the amount of energy these tyres have to take up round there.

"That's where Max we really cute today, backed off through those two right handers, made his time in the other parts of the circuit and a really really mature drive."

In addition to Verstappen's gainig an upper hand on Raikkonen on the opening lap, Horner underlined Mercedes' strategy error when the German team decided against bringing Hamilton in for fresh rubber during the VSC period.

The mistake coupled with Red Bull boldly stacking its own drivers played right into Verstappen's hands.

"I was surprised, it was pretty much a given," Horner said about Mercedes' decision and the call to pit under the VSC in general.

"But you have to have confidence in your boys to nail a double stop with the proximity that the drivers were in there.

"We have got the best guys in the pitlane without any shadow of a doubt. It was a ballsy call but it was the right thing to do and it paid dividends."

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