F1 | Red Bull, Christian Horner: “We will continue to fight and put pressure on Mercedes”

Red Bull leaves Turkey with an absolutely positive balance: despite the difficulties and problems shown by the RB16B - also confirmed by Max Verstappen, not entirely at ease with the car - the Anglo-Austrian team manages to place both cars on the podium and to regain the leadership of the drivers' world championship. Max Verstappen's race is absolutely linear and problem-free: the Dutchman faithfully follows the exhaust of Valtteri Bottas' Mercedes, without ever really worrying him. Limited damage, as they say, and Max retains second place, thanks also to the defense implemented by Sergio Perez. The Mexican is finally there, he shows up and fights tooth and nail to keep Lewis Hamilton behind him, chasing the podium and the Red Bull number 33. Perez, however, defended himself with all his strength , holding the position and ultimately taking third place. Excellent weekend for Christian Horner's Red Bull, who is now looking to Austin, ready not to give up even a thousandth.

"Finishing this weekend with a double podium is a great result. Max regained the championship leadership on a track where Mercedes is traditionally favoured, we limited the damage with great team work which brought us several points, which is why we will continue to fight – said the team principal – the championship lead continues to change hands and the rest of the season will be tough, we have some important races ahead of us which will put Mercedes under pressure. 

"The crucial moment of our race came when Checo pitted, we could have kept him out to try to slow down Lewis, but we decided to call him back because we thought Hamilton wouldn't get to the end of the race on those tires – Horner explained – Checo did a great job today, he fought hard with Lewis just like Max. They went wheel to wheel and he almost ended up in the pit lane when Lewis was about to overtake him, and from there it was an endurance race to the finish line and Checo he did it. The next race, in Austin, is one of Hamilton's strongholds, so we will have to be in top form, it's great to be in this fight for the world championship and the team is also enjoying the challenge".