Ricciardo win 'unexpected', admits Horner

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Red Bull principal Christian Horner admitted on Sunday that Daniel Ricciardo's victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix at the head of a team 1-2 with Max Verstappen finishing in second place had come as a surprise.

"It was a fantastic day for the team," Horner said. "43 points at a race like this is not what we expected this morning

"We capitalised on the misfortune of Lewis, hopefully in some way the pressure we were putting on him contributed to that," he added. "But our drivers both did a fantastic job to be in a position to capitalise. Great racing between the two of them, great team work."

Many saw Ricciardo's win as being only just reward, making up for several near-misses earlier in the season.

"He’s had lots of second places this year," Horner agreed. "These things - bad luck tends to even out over a period of time, usually over a season. His misfortune, in particular Monaco, was today’s bad luck for Lewis.

"It was great to see him get that victory. He celebrated it in his own unique style. He was a very popular winner today."

Horner revealed that Ricciardo had needed to call upon his team mate's car set-up data after a less than ideal time in Friday's practice sessions.

"The two engineers explored different set-ups. Max’s side of the garage was far happier on Friday evening. Quite naturally, the other side of the garage morphed onto that set-up. The long run in FP3 gave Daniel much more of an understanding and confidence for the race."

Ultimately it was the start of the race that decided which of the two Red Bull drivers would be in a position to win the race once Lewis Hamilton retired from the lead with engine failure.

"The main dictating factor today was the first corner," Horner acknowledged. "Max lost out after the Ferrari/Rosberg get-together. He was lucky to avoid it. That was the difference today."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.