Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed that Max Verstappen sustained significant floor damage during the Miami Grand Prix. The Dutchman was leading on Lap 20 but collided with a bollard at Turn 15, with the underside of his RB20 sustaining damage as a result.
The collision with the bollard cost Verstappen a significant amount of time, and Lando Norris ultimately capitalised to win his first-ever Grand Prix. The McLaren star inherited the lead on Lap 29 after a Safety Car was deployed following Logan Sargeant’s crash.
Norris then masterfully saw off the challenge of Verstappen to land the spoils by 7.6 seconds, with his post-safety car tyres also proving decisive in the final stages of the contest.
Speaking after the race, Horner heaped praise on Verstappen for managing to secure a second-place finish in Miami after his rare mistake. He said: “He hit the bollard around Lap 20 and that’s actually done quite a lot of damage to the underside of the car.
“So we’ll have to look at exactly what the effects of that was. But he had enough pace at that point, he was pulling clear of Oscar [Piastri] behind and Lando before he picked up that damage and then, obviously, thereafter we then pitted.
“And yeah, the safety car came out at the best time for Lando, which gave him essentially a free stop. But, obviously, not great for us because then you’re on tyres six or seven laps older. And with the damage, I think that actually second place was actually still a pretty decent result.”
Horner went on to provide details on the time that Verstappen lost as a result of the collision, both from the incident itself and because of the damage he sustained. He explained: “He lost two and a half tenths every lap in turn one. Now whether that was because of the damage, I think when you actually see the pictures of what was missing it wasn’t designed like that.”
Verstappen was keen to commend Norris for his success after the race when speaking to Sky Sports rather than blame his own collision, saying: “Today was just a bit tricky. It didn’t feel fantastic on the medium [tyres]. We were pulling away but not like we should be.
“Once I made a pitstop and I heard the lap times McLaren were doing I was like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty quick’. Once they switched over to the hard tyres, they just had more pace – especially Lando. He was flying.
“It was incredibly difficult for us but if a bad day is P2, I’ll take it. And I’m very happy for Lando. It’s been a long time coming and it’s not going to be his last one so, yeah, he definitely deserves it today.”
