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Verstappen was attacking Ricciardo three quarters of the way through the race , with fresher tyres he was hounding his teammate and making his feelings known over the team radio .
But Horner explained , “ We ’ ve heard it the other way around as well . Those situations you deal with at the time but I don ’ t see it as an issue . Obviously a driver ... especially in the world of tyre preservation that we currently live in , it ’ s a big factor of how these guys are going racing at the moment .
“ Sometimes , if you are the tail car , you would theoretically be able to push bit harder , but the guy in front , you can see from Lewis early in the stint , is really nursing his tyres ,” added Horner .
He also pointed out , “ What really saved Daniel ’ s race was the second VSC , which then it made total sense to pit both drivers , not take any risk , to put them on to the soft tire to the end of the race .”
During the VSC period Verstappen followed Ricciardo into the pits , also for fresher rubber . Asked why at this point the team did not opt to leave Verstappen out on track .. It would have been marginal to the end of the race with the tires .”
“ So we thought we will double stop , we have the time to be able to do that , and then it was a straight race between the two of them . We were looking for the tire to go an awful long way ,” explained Horner .