Christian Horner thanks ‘racing gods’ for Max Verstappen’s F1 title win after Abu Dhabi drama
Max Verstappen won the most dramatic of races after the intervention of the safety car
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Your support makes all the difference.Red Bull team principal Christian Horner thanked the racing gods after Max Verstappen fought back to win a dramatic Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from Lewis Hamilton on the final lap and clinch his first world championship.
Nicholas Latifi’s crash with five laps to go brought out the safety car, which meant Verstappen could not only close the 12-second gap to race leader Hamilton but also take the opportunity to change to fresh tyres for the finale.
Race director Michael Masi then allowed some of the lapped cars that were between Verstappen and Hamilton to overtake the safety car, much to the fury of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, meaning the Red Bull was right behind the Mercedes when the race restarted with one lap to go.
From there, Verstappen was able to quickly overtake Hamilton and hold on to win the race, and the title.
“It was going to need something from the racing gods,” said Horner. “The stewards, we felt hard done by [after first lap incident] but they did a great to get the race going again. Credit to Lewis, he’s been phenomenal and that makes the victory even more more valid.”
On the subject of the lapped cars controversy, Horner said: “It’s unheard of to leave the cars un-lapped. They made absolutely the right call. It’s difficult fo the stewards, we all were putting pressure on them, but they absolutely called it right.
“I’ve lost my voice because I was screaming from turn 5. Max got the job done and then Lewis was coming back on the straight, but you just knew Max was not going to give it up. The last 10 laps I was thinking what to say to Max, to the guys, to the team, and then we got that slice of luck with the safety car.”
Horner also praised Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez’ who played his part in Red Bull’s astonishing season, at one point battling hard with Hamilton on the track as Verstappen tried to catch up. “Checo has been amazing. They had a quicker car than us, it was strategy that won it today, and he’s a big part of this victory.”
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