Horner frustrated with Tsunoda and Schumacher – “Thought they were going to cost us victory”

Christian Horner was frustrated with Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher for nearly costing Max Verstappen his US GP victory.

Verstappen was leading the race, but had Lewis Hamilton closing the gap every lap. He then ran into a stumbling block in the shape of stubborn backmarkers, notably Tsunoda and Schumacher.

It was the Japanese rookie who held Verstappen up first, and put up a stiff defence against him. After he got past the AlphaTauri, he ran into Schumacher on the penultimate lap.

Initially, the Haas driver didn’t move out of the way, and Hamilton entered DRS zone. But just when all hope seemed to be lost for the Dutchman, Schumacher yielded and gave Verstappen the option of DRS.

The Red Bull driver took his reward and won the race on the last lap. However, Horner was frustrated with Tsunoda and Schumacher, and said that they nearly spoiled the win.  

“It’s always difficult because it’s very difficult to factor backmarkers into the strategy,” Horner told RacingNews365.com.

“We lost a lot of time behind Yuki, and then Mick Schumacher was quite costly on the last couple of laps.

Schumacher (pictured) was one of the hurdles in Verstappen’s way. Source: racingnews365.com

“I thought that was going to cost us the victory, because he held Max through the whole last sector but, thankfully, we did pick up the DRS on the start-finish straight which at least gave Max a little bit of breathing space into Turn 1, but it certainly added to the stress on the pit wall.”

Self-prioritising

Schumacher was asked what transpired at COTA. He defended his decision to race instead of yielding, and said that his race was more important to him.

“It was in a very weird position because I was going into a fast corner,” he said.

“I cannot really go into the marbles. I can’t disappear in that last sector. My car is on track too and I’m racing my race so I tried my best.

“I think Max got DRS from me, so I think it should have been fine,” he concluded.

Read more: Horner predicts “grandstand start” for Verstappen and Hamilton

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