Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says Max Verstappen's chances of remaining ahead in the Italian Grand Prix could be helped by an engine "clipping" occurrence impacting Mercedes' car on Monza's straights.
Verstappen will start Sunday's race from pole position following Valtteri Bottas' demotion to the back of the grid as the result of an engine change.
However, championship rival Lewis Hamilton will line up on the second row in fourth place, from where the Briton will need to overhaul a pair of fast McLaren's before hunting down his Red Bull adversary.
Horner believes Hamilton's inability to do just that in Saturday's sprint race bodes well for Verstappen.
According to the Red Bull team principal, an engine clipping phenomenon linked to the Mercedes engine's harvesting mode is shaving off a significant amount of top speed from the German outfit's cars.
"When they're running sustainably, they're harvesting a lot, what we call clipping, so at the end of the straights you see the rear light flashing and that just kills your straight-line speed," Horner told Sky F1.
"You could see Lewis getting within half a second, which is usually an overtake, but just running out of momentum at the end of the straight.
"That's good news if we can stay ahead tomorrow, because it means they won't be able to attack too hard at the end of the straights, because they've got this harvesting going on."
Horner says Hamilton's horror launch off the grid in the sprint race governed how the event panned out.
"It was all dictated at the start," Horner continued. "A great start for Max and a poor one from Lewis, so we were able to capitalize on that.
"The fast-starting McLarens on the Soft tyres meant we were vulnerable to that at the start, but we were able to cover that off. We had good pace in the race and were able go with Valtteri."
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