Horner praises ‘squeaky clean’ Verstappen after Dutchman avoids ‘potential gamesmanship’ from rivals

Christian Horner was left delighted with a clean drive from Max Verstappen in Montreal, the Dutchman converting his P2 grid slot into a second-place finish as he fell just short of challenging George Russell for the win.

There had been much made of the two rivals from Barcelona sharing the front row in Canada, with Russell joking after Qualifying that he had more Super Licence penalty points to play with if any wheel-to-wheel racing occurred on the first lap.

But in the end both kept that opening lap clean, and from there Verstappen did not put a foot wrong as he kept Russell honest ahead, whilst defending from Kimi Antonelli behind.

While Verstappen remains on 11 penalty points and just one point away from a race ban, two of those points come off after the next race in Austria – giving the Dutchman some breathing room moving forward.

“I think that it's inevitable that there was going to be some potential gamesmanship,” Horner explained afterwards.

“It's something that we raised after the drivers’ briefing, you know, with the Race Director. Just so that they were mindful of it as well. Because it's clear that, you know, that kind of stuff goes on.

“But Max, I thought he's been squeaky clean all weekend. He drove a very good race today.”

Verstappen ran an aggressive strategy that saw him pit early to try and undercut Russell, but to no avail. Even so, Red Bull had the pace to beat the McLarens and Ferraris, with Verstappen able to score his fifth podium of the season.

“I think it was a solid race for us. I mean, the first thing, we pushed pretty hard early on, on the medium tyre. The tyre then started to open up. So, I would say the second stint for us was probably our least competitive stint," continued Horner.

“We started to open up and grain the front left. But then the last stint was very strong and was actually better than Kimi's behind, and was pretty much a match to George ahead on five or six-lap [younger] tyres.

“I think it was a very solid race for us. Good points today. It was a well-executed race from that perspective.”

Red Bull did protest Russell’s finishing result, questioning his driving behind the late Safety Car – but Horner was keen to stress that was a team decision, and did not come from Verstappen. It is the second time in five races Red Bull have questioned Russell's antics.

“It's certainly not personal to George... The way the regulations are, the regulations are pretty binary, pretty clear.

“So, we've put in a protest. Regulations are very clear about the Safety Car. If you remember Checo [Sergio Perez] back in Singapore in '22 got two penalties for it.”

The stewards found no case to answer in the end, but second place was still enough for Verstappen to close the gap on Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the Championship, with the former coming home fourth and the latter failing to finish following a clash with his team mate.

Verstappen now sits on 155 points in the Championship, 21 behind Norris and 43 behind Piastri.