Ted Kravitz raises Christian Horner suspicion after Verstappen and Perez clash

Ted Kravitz has accused Christian Horner of not being truthful after Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez almost clashed at the Austrian Grand Prix. The two Red Bull drivers enjoyed a thrilling duel on the opening lap with the pair almost colliding on three occasions.

But, Horner appeared ambivalent after the race and even attempted to defend Sergio Perez despite the Mexican coming close to taking out Verstappen. However, in his Ted’s Notebook show, Kravitz suggested the Red Bull boss was hiding his real anger.

He said: “Christian Horner was having a look at it on his replay monitors with Jonathan Wheatley before he came and spoke to us. Horner wanted to understand exactly what was going on with Verstappen and Perez. Kind of looking at it again.

“Christian watches the race like the rest of them do on the Red Bull pit wall but doesn’t really have the opportunity to replay it. But Jonathan Wheatley, the team manager has the opportunity to replay it and see what exactly it was.

“Then he had his view, he didn’t share his view with us Christian Horner, he just said ‘oh well, they sort it out themselves’. He rather dodged the question, maybe I should have pushed him harder on it but I doubt he would have told me it. The politician’s answer perfected by Christian Hoen, you’ll never get anything out.”

Kravitz added: “Horner of course with his view, obviously not happy but he’s not saying anything.” Perez enjoyed a better start and dived up the inside of Verstappen at turn one for the lead.

The Dutchman quickly cut back and appeared set to cruise past before Perez jerked his car to the right. After the race, Verstappen demanded talks with Red Bull bosses after claiming the incident could have led to a “big crash”.

Moments later, Perez took to team radio to complain after Verstappen locked up his tyres and almost hit the Mexican at turn three. The two Red Bull stars were spotted holding talks after the chequered flag to clear the air.

When pushed on his version of events, Horner suggested Perez had not spotted Verstappen on the inside of turn one. He told Sky Sports F1 “They’ve spoken about it. I think Checo had Max maybe unsighted there on the right-hand side. Thankfully they didn’t collect each other and a 1-2 finish is a great result for the team.

“The rules are very fair, race hard but give each other space. At turn one and three was OK, the bit in the middle was where it got a bit tasty but maybe Checo didn’t see Max.” However, 1996 F1 champion Damon Hill revealed the Red Bull team principal would likely have a word with the pair ahead of tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

He remarked: “We want to see entertainment. If you are a team boss you might have a quiet word and say, ‘what are you doing’. That was a little bit too overaggressive, do you mind not doing that in the future’. It was very feisty from Sergio.”