Christian Horner has insisted second for Max Verstappen was still a ‘pretty decent result’ after Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix.
Verstappen had gone into the race as the favourite to reign supreme, having previously won events in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Japan and China.
But the 26-year-old hit a bollard while leading, with Norris then capitalising to win the first Formula One race of his career.
Verstappen could only finish second as a result, with Charles Leclerc joining the Dutchman on the podium.
Christian Horner has praised Max Verstappen after the Red Bull star finished second at the Miami Grand Prix
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Given Red Bull weren’t able to enjoy their best day, with Sergio Perez only finishing fifth, Horner could be forgiven for feeling a tad deflated.
Verstappen’s failure to win comes less than a week after the exit of key engineer Adrian Newey.
But Horner was enthused and says second was still a ‘pretty decent result’.
“He hit the bollard around Lap 20 and that’s actually done quite a lot of damage to the underside of the car,” he told Sky Sports.
“So we’ll have to look at exactly what the effects of that was.
“But he had enough pace at that point, he was pulling clear of Oscar [Piastri] behind and Lando before he picked up that damage and then, obviously, thereafter we then pitted.
“And yeah, the safety car came out at the best time for Lando, which gave him essentially a free stop.
“But, obviously, not great for us because then you’re on tyres six or seven laps older.
“And with the damage, I think that actually second place was actually still a pretty decent result.
“He lost two and a half tenths every lap in turn one. Now whether that was because of the damage, I think when you actually see the pictures of what was missing it wasn’t designed like that.”
Verstappen has also provided his assessment of the race in Miami.
And the 26-year-old admits the team will ‘try to come back stronger’ when the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix takes place on May 19.
However, Verstappen also showed a touch of class by praising Norris for his win.
“I’m very happy for Lando, it’s been a long time coming and it’s not going to be his last one, so he definitely deserves it today,” he said.
“They came with an upgrade, for sure it looks like it works so we have a bit of work to do from our side.
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Max Verstappen could only finish second at the Miami Grand Prix
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“I think definitely it wasn’t our strongest weekend in terms of race pace, but we’ll analyse it all and we’ll try to come back stronger.”
As for Norris, meanwhile, the Briton was seen chatting with Donald Trump in the wake of his maiden triumph.
The 24-year-old says it was an ‘honour’ to meet the former US president, while also dubbing Trump his ‘lucky charm’.
“I didn’t see him in the garage to be honest, I was busy prepping for the race,” Norris said.
“But he saw me after and he came up to congratulate me, so I guess an honour, because whenever you have someone like this, it has to be an honour for you – for them to come up to you, to take time out of their life to pay their respect for what you’ve done.
Lando Norris could only finish second at the Miami Grand Prix
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“He said he was my lucky charm because it was my win, so I don’t know if he’s going to come to more races now.
“But yeah, there’s a lot of special people, cool people that have been here this weekend.
“Donald is someone that you’ve got to have a lot of respect for, in many ways, and for anyone like that who acknowledges what you can go out and do, and acknowledges the work ethic that goes into things, you’ve got to be thankful for that, and I was.
“So, yeah. Cool moment, and that’s all.”
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