Horner gave ‘politician’s answer’ in response to Perez-Verstappen tussle

Verstappen claimed a dominant victory in Saturday’s frantic wet-dry sprint race ahead of Red Bull teammate Perez, but only after the pair survived a feisty skirmish on the first lap.

Perez took the lead from Verstappen at the start and then edged the world champion onto the grass as they diced for for the lead, which Verstappen wrestled back with a forceful lunge into Turn 3. 

Speaking about the squabble between the Red Bull drivers in his post-sprint race Notebook, Kravitz said: “Christian Horner was having a look at it on his replay monitors with Jonathan Wheatley before he came and spoke to us. Horner wanted to understand exactly what was going on with Verstappen and Perez. Kind of looking at it again.

“Christian watches the race like the rest of them do on the Red Bull pit wall but doesn’t really have the opportunity to replay it. But Jonathan Wheatley, the team manager has the opportunity to replay it and see what exactly it was.

“Then he had his view, he didn’t share his view with us Christian Horner, he just said ‘oh well, they sort it out themselves’. He rather dodged the question, maybe I should have pushed him harder on it but I doubt he would have told me it. The politician's answer perfected by Christian Horner, you’ll never get anything out.”

Kravitz added: “Horner of course with his view, obviously not happy but he’s not saying anything.”

Responding to the first-lap tussle, Horner told Kravitz: "They've spoken about it. I think Checo had Max maybe unsighted there on the right-hand side. 

“Thankfully they didn't collect each other and a 1-2 finish is a great result for the team. The rules are very fair, race hard but give each other space.

"At Turn 1 and Turn 3 was OK, the bit in the middle was where it got a bit tasty but maybe Checo didn't see Max.”

Perez insisted he “didn’t see” Verstappen in their near-miss due to the intense levels of spray.