Christian Horner defends Red Bull team orders at Spanish Grand Prix

Red Bull principal Christian Horner said it made total sense to impose team orders on Sergio Perez at the Spanish Grand Prix.

There was plenty of drama going on at the front in Barcelona. Verstappen was running P2, but after sliding off into the gravel, found himself dropping to P4 behind George Russell and team-mate Perez.

But when Charles Leclerc retired from the lead, suddenly the stakes were raised, Verstappen needing an undercut to clear Russell due to faulty DRS which was opening intermittently.

Perez found himself in the lead, but at the order of Red Bull, yielded to Verstappen who went on to win and take over the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.

On the radio post-race, Perez said: “I’m happy for the team, but we need to speak later.”

Sergio Perez: “I’m happy for the team. But we need to speak later.”

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Horner though stressed that it was the right thing to do, since Verstappen had a tyre life advantage, while the scorching temperatures were pushing the cars to their limit.

“I think the problem that we had we could see as I think other cars, we got temperatures raging, you know, water, oil, brakes,” Horner told Sky F1.

“And the last thing you want to risk is you know, DNF when you have got two cars that can potentially now one-two, and they were on different strategies, so it wasn’t a straight fight Max had such a tyre advantage.

“And of course Checo’s tyres wouldn’t have made it you know, we don’t think to the end. So that’s why you know, he pitted towards the end of the race to get that valuable, fastest lap as well.

“Our responsibility is to bring the cars home with as many points as we can. And of course, what Checo couldn’t see at the time, which I think he’d see perfectly well now, is that you had such a long stint to do on that medium tyre. Max had such a tyre advantage.

“From a team perspective, there’s just no point in taking, you…