Christian Horner left stunned by 'making love' McLarens

Christian Horner has made the stunning claim that Oscar Piastri was "basically making love" to Lando Norris's exhaust in the Austrian Grand Prix.

McLaren dominated the race at Red Bull's home track, with Norris leading Piastri home in a one-two, featuring frantic wheel-to-wheel action between the pair. 

Piastri was hunting Norris for multiple laps and was able to stay within Norris's DRS without destroying his tyres in the hot air and track temperatures as well as the dirty air of the sister MCL39 machine. 

Reflecting on a day Max Verstappen retired after a first lap crash and Yuki Tsunoda was last, Horner made the stunning claim about the McLaren, featuring some strong language.

"Temperatures and long corners are where they are particularly strong, and it is truly impressive," Horner reflected to media, including RacingNews365. 

"For me, I can't see any other team being able to do it when you look at how Oscar is able to run behind Lando with a car fat on fuel at the beginning of the race. 

"He's basically making love to his fucking exhaust pipe for lap after lap after lap and the tyres are not dying. 

"To me, that is their advantage, that they've managed to create a car that really protects their tyres well and has a good balance.

"I can't see any other car which would be able to follow that closely and not grain the front or rear tyres a lot more. 

"McLaren, you can see how they're racing each other, they've got a cushion to the rest of the field, and for us, we will just focus on one race at a time. 

"We don't think about the championships, we just focus on the next race."