Red Bull boosted in title bid after ‘easy’ Verstappen victory

Christian Horner took confidence from a stunning Red Bull display at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix as he revealed Max Verstappen found matching Mercedes “so easy” on Sunday.

In the second consecutive race at Silverstone, Verstappen claimed his first victory of the delayed 2020 season, ending a run of four straight wins for the Silver Arrows.

The Dutchman’s tyre strategy paid off as he was the only one in the top 10 to start on the hard compound, quickly moving into position to challenge pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen hunted down the duo as Mercedes’ tyres suffered and ultimately finished a fairly comfortable winner.

“It was an amazing performance today,” team principal Horner told Sky Sports. “The pace in the race was beyond what we expected.

“We started on that sort of reverse strategy – Max was just chilling out at the beginning of the race and the pace in the car was just so easy today.

“Even after Mercedes pitted and went onto a new hard, we were able to pull away. At that point, you think this really is game on now.”

However, Horner acknowledged similar conditions may be required for the rest of the year in order for Red Bull to challenge Mercedes in the title race.

“We probably need these tyres at most other races – and this temperature,” he said. “They’re a formidable opponent, but we’ve had a really strong performance today.

“We’ve beaten them fair and square, we’ve beaten them on pace and on strategy. There’s a lot of confidence that we’ll take out of this race weekend.”

Red Bull’s desire to capitalise on their pace advantage was evident as Verstappen told the team radio he would not sit behind the Mercedes “like a grandma”.

“His grandma must drive pretty quickly,” Horner joked. “We just had them covered today.

“I think there’s a lot for us to understand from this race. The car worked fantastically well, with Alex [Albon] as well, and the pace was right there.”