Christian Horner stated that Max Verstappen's late pit stop during the Austrian Grand Prix was done by the team in order to prevent an unexpected tyre failure. The Dutchman lost out on a certain victory in Baku when his left-rear tyre failed with a handful of laps remaining. Horner stated that given the advantage Verstappen had over Valtteri Bottas in second, the team opted to bring him in given they could see a small cut on his tyres. "I think that one stops, after Azerbaijan, and when you’ve got a 25 second lead with a free pit stop, why take the risk?," Horner told RacingNews365.com and other members of the media. "We could see there was a small cut. It wasn’t significant but it was enough to catch your attention, so the only risk was the stop itself. The guys had it phenomenally at just under two seconds. "They turned the car around quickly, Max did a great job and then bettered his own fastest lap. It just gave us a lower risk run to the finish, so it was a prudent thing to do." Sunday's victory means Verstappen now holds a 32 point advantage over Lewis Hamilton with the British Grand Prix next up.
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