Red Bull prepared to give away win: 'Our focus was on Lewis'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen won the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. Although Red Bull Racing wanted to win the race, it was important for the Austrians that Verstappen would score more points than his direct competitor Lewis Hamilton.
Christian Horner tells Motorsport.com that Red Bull was willing to grant Valtteri Bottas the win, as long as Verstappen performed better than the British driver. "Our focus was on Lewis. He is our closest competitor. We had to make the choice between the two, even though there was a risk of giving away the win. It was important to score more points than Lewis."
Mercedes' strategy fails
Red Bull had few opportunities to apply strategy due to Sergio Pérez's mediocre qualifying, but Mercedes had just that. The German formation started with Hamilton in second position, while Bottas followed behind.
It had little effect on the result, however, as Verstappen finished as the weekend's winner. "They could play with two cars and went on the aggressive tour with Lewis, while Valtteri went long. The two-stopper was faster so it was crucial to get past Bottas as quickly as possible. Max did that."