Verstappen achieved his second victory of the 2022 season by dominating the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from start to finish, leading ahead of teammate Sergio Pérez.
That was Red Bull’s first one-two since the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix , capitalizing on a difficult home race for Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz retired on the first lap after a touch from Daniel Ricciardo, while Charles Leclerc went off track while chasing Perez for second in the final section. The Monegasque eventually recovered to finish sixth.
Red Bull took 58 of a possible 59 points during the sprint race weekend, enjoying an advantage over Ferrari in outright pace, which Horner attributed to how the RB18 managed the tyres.
“As we saw in Melbourne with the tyres, there is an operating window, and with this weekend’s setup we did well,” explained Horner.
“We could see that Charles was having a bit more trouble with the front tires here than we were, both in the race on Saturday and in the last part of the race on Sunday.
“So that gave us the advantage, and I think Max was able to manage the race perfectly.”
“Checo was able to create a cushion with Charles and control that gap. And at no point, except for a jaunt across Checo’s turf, were we really under too much pressure.”
Verstappen took pole position in Friday’s qualifying session, and was able to bounce back after losing the sprint race lead to Leclerc at the start to overtake the Ferrari driver in the closing laps.
Ferrari opted to make a second stop with Leclerc late in Sunday’s race, putting him on a set of softs that the team had hoped would help them catch Perez, but a spin ended the team’s hopes of slipping past the Red Bulls.
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto believes tire management had been a big weak point for the Scuderia in the sprint race, but admitted a lack of dry practice may have affected his understanding of the medium compound used in the race. race.
“We had very little time to set up the car, just one session on Friday, which was entirely in the wet, so there is very little data to collect on the drivers even for long runs,” Binotto lamented.
“It is true that we had FP2 on Saturday morning, but the feeling is that we needed to have done more during this weekend when we get to the sprint race.”
“But you’re right that Red Bull did a better job in that regard. So we’ll definitely look into it and understand why we couldn’t do as good a job as well.”
With that result, Red Bull cut Ferrari’s lead in the constructors’ championship, as well as drawing level with two wins apiece from the first four rounds of the season.
Horner believes the fight between Red Bull and Ferrari will remain “horse-for-race” this year, opting for one side or the other due to the narrow margins between the two teams.
“Ferrari have a great car, they have great drivers,” said Horner.
“They have been unlucky in this race. But for sure they are going to be super competitive in two weeks. And I think it will be like that for the whole season.”
