Poleman Verstappen was overtaken by George Russell on the preliminary begin, and he then misplaced an extra spot at Flip three when, in Horner’s phrases, Hamilton “despatched a missile” down the within and made an aggressive go.
Verstappen then sat in third watching the Mercedes drivers battle earlier than Russell pitted when a security automotive got here out after Alex Albon crashed.
The next pink flag gave Hamilton and Verstappen a free tyre change and saved them on the entrance of the order.
A couple of laps after the restart, the Pink Bull driver took the lead with a DRS transfer and commenced to tug clear on his method to an eventual victory.
“Clearly Max needed to make the go on Lewis,” mentioned Horner. “The 2 Mercedes had been quick beginning, they had been very aggressive on the primary lap, Max displaying nice endurance actually to not get embroiled.
“George bought a blinder, and he simply despatched it down into the primary nook so Max bought out of that, and by getting out of it to permit him by that then compromised him by T2.
“After which Fernando [Alonso] and Lewis get a run on him after which Lewis sends a missile down into T3.”
Horner praised his driver for leaving house for Hamilton.
“Once more, I assumed he confirmed nice endurance to get out of the best way,” he mentioned. “It was laborious racing between the 2 of them, after which in fact the race was simply getting going, and it was fairly a struggle between the three of them on the entrance.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14, Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing RB19, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“Gave the impression of George wasn’t joyful about being pushed by Lewis, who in flip was being pushed laborious by Max.
“Then they began having a go at one another, then they pitted George, then the pink flag got here out after which it was only a straight struggle between Max and Lewis, and he made very quick work of that.
“Then it was a query of controlling the race from that time onwards.”
After the race, Verstappen made it clear that he wasn’t proud of Hamilton’s first lap go.
“From my aspect, I simply tried to keep away from a contact,” mentioned the Dutchman. “It is fairly clear within the guidelines what you are allowed to do now on the surface. However clearly it is not adopted.
“However that is OK, we had good tempo and we handed them anyway. Nevertheless it’s one thing for the following races to keep in mind.”
Hamilton in distinction believed that his transfer was a good one, with each males giving one another respiratory house.
“I assumed it was fairly respectable,” mentioned the seven-times world champion. “I imply, he braked early and I braked late, and I used to be totally up the within, and I feel we each left house for one another.
“I did not run him off the street and he did not flip in on me. So we did not contact, and that is racing.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff additionally noticed no situation with Hamilton’s transfer.
“We’ve plenty of dialogue up to now about racing guidelines,” mentioned the Austrian. “I do not assume that was a foul one.”
