Horner explains Red Bull approach despite Jos Verstappen 'noise'

Christian Horner has detailed the normalcy inside Red Bull despite the external "noise" being created by Jos Verstappen.

Max Verstappen delivered arguably one of his greatest qualifying performances at the Red Bull Ring to finish four-tenths of a second ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris, a remarkable feat over a 64-second lap.

Verstappen again performed despite a distracting backdrop involving his father and Horner who have been involved in another spat.

Verstappen Sr withdrew from a Legends Parade at the circuit after claiming he had been informed of Horner attempting to block him from driving Sebastian Vettel's title-winning RB8 from 2012.

The 52-year-old later stated he is "done with Horner", and is refusing to dismiss the prospect of his son leaving Red Bull to join rivals Mercedes.

Asked on Sky Sports F1 how he was handling the disharmony between himself and Verstappen Sr, and how the latter's son was compartmentalising the situation, Horner replied: "To be honest with you, as soon as we cross that line into the garage, everything's normal.

"Whatever the noise is, as soon as everybody's in the garage, everybody knows what their job is, and everybody's focused on one goal.

"We've got a fantastic team. Max is the best driver in the world and showing quite clearly why, and I think the way he handles himself as well, he's just grown as a human being."

After all the recent discussions over which team currently has the fastest car, Verstappen provided an answer in emphatic fashion.

In Q2, his runs were 1:04.577s and then 1:04.469s. In Q3, they were 1:04.426s before leaving his best until last with 1:04.314s.

"The car and he have both been absolutely in the window so far all weekend," said Horner. "Four sets of tyres, and each lap he did would have been good enough for pole, so an incredible performance by him and he seemed pretty happy with where the car was at.

"It's an absolute pleasure to see the level that he's driving at, and when he comes in, and the detail he's going into with his engineer, and knowing exactly what he needs and where he needs it, yet he's only talking about a quarter of a tenth or half a tenth.

"The fidelity he seems to have is outstanding, absolutely world class."