Max Verstappen reaching the finish of the British Grand Prix was “remarkable”, according to Red Bull chief Christian Horner, in the wake of his clash with Sebastian Vettel.
Verstappen lost out during the Safety Car period but resisted Charles Leclerc, passed Pierre Gasly, and overhauled Vettel around the outside of Stowe to capture third place.
But Verstappen’s prospects were undone when he was struck by Vettel at the next corner, as the German’s attempt at challenging the Red Bull driver backfired.
Verstappen finished fifth but revealed that he could see parts shedding from his RB15, having lost power steering, while also grappling with a loose seat.
"It was remarkable the car held together, to keep going with the damage he had was quite incredible," said Horner.
"At least he managed to finish the race and get some points out of it.
"It is frustrating, because he’d made a great pass on Seb and I can only imagine it was a complete misjudgement by Seb to lock up and hit him the way he did.”
Horner believes Verstappen would have had a shot at beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas to second place without the incident.
"Obviously from our point of view, it was very frustrating because it knocked Max off a guaranteed podium… which spot on the podium we don’t know," he added.
"He certainly would have been second on track and then whether Valtteri would have been able to catch him or not, we’d have had to wait and see. So that was very frustrating."
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