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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Daniel Moxon

Queen quizzed Christian Horner about Red Bull feud involving Sebastian Vettel at lunch

The Queen once asked Christian Horner to explain the feud between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber after their relationship as team-mates at Red Bull broke down.

There was always some form of tension between the two drivers. Vettel was the German wunderkind, who had risen through Red Bull's youth programme to become world champion in 2010 – and he would go on to defend that status successfully three more times after that.

Webber was brought into the team and always felt like an outsider. Tensions between them finally came to a head in 2013, during their final season together, when Vettel ignored team orders to overtake in the late stages of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The German was behind Webber as Red Bull had both their drivers at the front of the race, and the team ordered him to stay there. But keen to start the season well and secure that fourth title in a row, he ignored that 'Multi-21' request and overtook the Aussie to steal the win. Their relationship completely broke down at that point.

So controversial was the incident that it even came to the attention of the Queen. Team principal Horner revealed as much in a TV interview, in which he recalled a conversation he had with the monarch about that day in Kuala Lumpur.

"She loved her horses obviously, a real passion of hers, competitive spirit. But I remember being invited to a lunch at Buckingham Palace by herself and Prince Philip," he told Sky Sports F1.

Horner and Red Bull joined the rest of the paddock in paying tribute to the Queen at Monza on Friday (Getty Images)

"There were very few of us there and she'd obviously been well briefed. And she asked me... we sat down for lunch and she said 'what's going on with your drivers? Why don’t they get on?'"

Horner also paid tribute to the Queen, who died on Thursday at the age of 96. He added: "She was just the most remarkable person, immediately put you at ease. She had a sense of humour as well. She'll be sorely, sorely missed.

" It's just tremendously sad because she's been the stability for such a long period of time that it's almost unimaginable to think of her not being there. She's on every coin, every pound note. It's just a real shame."

Formula 1 paid its respects to the Queen with a minute's silence held in the paddock at Monza ahead of first practice on Friday. A second gesture is planned for just before Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, during which many teams will carry special tributes on their car liveries.

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