Max Verstappen asked if he still has faith in Christian Horner as Red Bull F1 boss

Max Verstappen has been grilled about whether he still retains faith in Christian Horner’s leadership of the Red Bull F1 team after claiming pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

On the eve of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Red Bull team principal was cleared of alleged inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague following an external investigation carried out by a specialist barrister.

Horner reiterated his denial of the allegations on Thursday when material purporting to be alleged evidence was leaked by an anonymous source to senior F1 figures, team principals and members of the media.

Crash.net has seen the leaked documents - which included screenshots of WhatsApp messages and pictures - but has been unable to authenticate the contents.

Horner refused to comment on “anonymous speculation” and returned to the paddock on Friday to watch Verstappen storm to the first pole position of the season in Bahrain.

Amid the fresh scrutiny surrounding Horner, Verstappen was asked if he still has faith in the 50-year-old's leadership of Red Bull.

“From my side, and I think what I can see also from the mechanics and the engineers, we are all fully focused on the car and the performance here during the weekend,” the three-time world champion responded.

"That’s how it should be, I think, and that’s what we continue to do, because it’s not our business. We are not particularly involved in that and we are paid to do our job and that’s what we love doing, so that’s what we focus on.”

After Verstappen failed to answer the question directly, it was put to the Dutchman for a second time, to which he replied: “Listen, when I look at how Christian operates within the team, he has been an incredible team boss so absolutely from the performance side of things, you can’t even question that.

“So that’s what I’m also dealing with. I speak to Christian a lot, and also of course throughout the weekend here. He is fully committed to the team. He’s also here for the performance.

“Of course probably a little bit distracted but like I said before we all focus on the performance side of things and that’s how we all work together.”