Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has taken a swipe at Mercedes’ strategy at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, describing it as “defeatist”.

After an early red flag enabled drivers to change their tyres, mandator🐭y pit stops were no longer required, allowing for the possibility of ꦐteams to run until the end of the race.

Most of the field did, including Mercedes’ 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:George Russell, who finished fifth and one place ahead of Red Bull’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen, who was one of the few who pitted.

Russell was told to manage his pace throughout 🌜the early stages before pushing lꦡater on after he successfully retained track position over Verstappen following the Dutchman’s pit stop.

After the fourth ♔race of the season in Japan, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff declared that the title race was already over. After Sundꦍay’s result, Verstappen holds a  31-point advantage in the championship.

Asked if he thinks Wolff had been too quick to suggest that Verstappen already ꦕhad the title wrapped up, and if he can yet be challenged, Horner replied: “Yeah, I think so. Perhaps not w🔯ith Mercedes.

“But I think with Ferrari and McLaren certainly look competitive, they cannot be discounted. It’s a long, long championship and obviously they’ve taken a reasonab🦩le chunk of points today.

“I didn’t really under💛stand Mercedes race today, it wa💛s a hugely conservative race by George, to give up so much time and then go so fast at the end of the race, it didn’t really make a lot of sense.

"But I do꧑n’t think it would’ve changed…they weren’t going to overtake anybody, it was just a very defeatist race to try and defend fifth.”

Horner also downplayed com🌌ments made by a frustrated Verstappen throughout the Monaco weekend.

“Listen to Max𓆉's comments over the last 10 years. He's just very direct, he's very forthright and it just focuses everyone,” he said.

“There was 🍬a very good debrief yesterday, following qualifying were we really dug into right, what exactly is the sensation from the driver. 

“He put a big effort into spending the time with the engineer𒉰s yesterday evening. There's no silver bullet, it's just about working hard and understanding it.”

Comme⭕nting on his race, Russelꦐl said: ”It was a long, old race, a strange race. The first 30 laps we were tootling around.

"When Max pitted I put my foot down and it was only afterwards I realised how much we closed the🐲 gap on the Ferrari and McLarens. I was re🗹ally pleased about that.

"Max put me under a𝕴 bit of pressure but it was pretty under control.

"When🎃 the red flag came out, it was frustrating for everybody. The only hope of a good race in Monaco was a bꩲit of spiciness with strategy but then strategy was out of the window. We got the maximum we could."