Horner: Leclerc spin cost Max ‘three or four tenths’

At Silverstone, Carlos Sainz claimed his first career F1 pole position – but without the other Ferrari spinning, could it have gone to Max Verstappen?

That is what Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes, Verstappen’s team boss explaining the yellow flags triggered by Charles Leclerc’s Q3 spin had forced Verstappen to lift off, losing up to four tenths of a second in the process.

Verstappen ultimately fell short of Sainz’s pole time by only 0.072s.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if that had been a pole position that got away, Horner replied: “Yeah, I mean, Charles had like a half spin, Max lifted for the yellow [flags] and I think he gave up about three or four tenths for it.

“But congratulations to Carlos, he’s always been a demon in the wet when he was a junior for us. He was always very strong in these kinds of conditions. So congrats to him, and just pleased to be on the front row with Checo [Perez] up there on the second row as well.”

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Verstappen does a 360°

The Dutchman manages to regain control and continues on his way#BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/1pcHlK4ATb

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 2, 2022

Verstappen certainly did not have a clean Q3 in his own right, losing his first flying lap after spinning, while his second also featured a trip into the run-off area.

Horner though explained it is Verstappen’s way to search for the limit, revealing the World Championship leader somehow only lost two seconds by spinning.

Speaking about Verstappen’s Q3 dramas, Horner said: “He didn’t lose any laps but had one moment where he did a