Horner delighted Red Bull extracted the “maximum” from F1 Turkish GP

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez joined race winner Valtteri Bottas on the podium at Istanbul Park, with Lewis Hamilton only managing fifth having started from outside of the top 10 following a grid penalty.

While Red Bull wasn’t able to close in on Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, Verstappen reclaimed the lead of the drivers’. 

Given Mercedes’ sheer pace advantage in Turkey, Horner was pleased to have two Red Bulls on the podium.

“I think that you have to take the points we did in both drivers and constructors I think the engineering team did a great job Friday night when we were a bit out the window on Friday, arguably this has been Mercedes' strongest circuit that we've seen so far this season so to have two cars on the podium, retake the lead in the drivers’ championship is a positive day for us,” Horner said.

Mercedes has won every race at the Circuit of the Americas except 2018 in the hybrid era, while Red Bull is without a win in America since 2013.

Horner expects Mercedes to be the team to beat next time out at the US Grand Prix, but is hopeful Red Bull finds its form again in Mexico and Brazil - tracks it has flourished at in recent years due to the high altitude.

“We know the next race in Austin has been a Hamilton stronghold for quite a few years now but then Mexico, Brazil hopefully higher altitude races tended to be quite strong for us in the past so I'm really not sure what to expect from the last three,” Horner added. “It's going to be fascinating but you know we're gonna have to be at the very top of our game. 

“We've managed to extract the maximum that we possibly could today so again, you know great execution in the pit stops, good strategy, we got the call the right today on the pit wall with the drivers so that was positive but certainly, this venue has been strong for Mercedes on outright pace.”