Christian Horner has conceded Max Verstappen’s bid to win a fifth consecutive world championship is all but over as he proclaimed a two-horse race between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the title.
Verstappen is 61 points behind Piastri – the equivalent of two and a half victories – after he was punted out of Red Bull’s home race in Austria by Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap.
Lando Norris saw off Piastri as McLaren secured a one-two finish to cement their dominance. Verstappen’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda finished 16th, last and two laps down on a miserable afternoon for the team which two years ago won all but one of the 23 races staged.
There are still 13 rounds remaining, but Red Bull team principal Horner said: “The buffer McLaren has is significant. It looks very much like a two-horse race.
“You could see how McLaren are racing each other. They’ve got a cushion to the rest. For us we just focus on one race at a time. We don’t even think about championships.
“What’s truly impressive is when you look at how close Oscar is able to run behind Lando with a car fat on fuel, at the beginning of the race, and he’s basically making love to his f****** exhaust pipe lap after lap after lap and the tyres are not dying.
“That is their advantage. I can’t see any other car that would be able to follow that closely and not grain the front tyres or the rear tyres.”
Verstappen has so often dominated in Austria, winning five times here, and, until Saturday, took the last four pole positions.
But the Dutchman called his car “undriveable” in qualifying on his way to taking a lowly seventh grid spot. And his race ended at the third corner when Antonelli arrived like a torpedo to T-bone his Red Bull.
“I’m out, got hit, like crazy,” Verstappen said over the radio. “F****** idiots.” Antonelli was penalised by the stewards with a three-place grid drop for next weekend’s British Grand Prix. The Italian teenager, who accepted blame for the crash, was also sanctioned with two points on his licence.
“It was unlucky, just like qualifying yesterday, but overall we didn’t have great pace,” Verstappen said. “We have a lot of learnings as to how we can do better next weekend. It was not an ideal result today.
“We try to do our best and my mentality doesn’t change. We have won a lot in the past and sometimes you have to accept when you are not winning.”
