Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has taken a swipe at Mercedes’ strategy at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, describing it as “defeatist”.

After an early red flag enabled drivers to change their tyres, mandatory pit stops were no longer required, allow🃏ing for the possibility of teams to run until the end of the race.

Most of the field did, including Mercedes’ 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell, who finished fifth and one place ahead of Red Bull’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen, who was one of the few who pitted.

Russell was told to manage his pace throughout the early stages before pushing later on after he successfully retai💎ned track position over Verstappen following the Dutch♑man’s pit stop.

After the fourth race of the season in Japan, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff declared that the title race was already over. After Sunday’s result, Verstappen holds a  31-point advantage in the champio𝓀nship.

Asked if he thinks Wolff had been too quick to suggest that ♊Verstappen already had the title 🔯wrapped up, and if he can yet be challenged, Horner replied: “Yeah, I think so. Perhaps not with Mercedes.

“But I think with Ferrari and McLaren certainly look competitive, they cannot be disc𒅌ounted. It’s a long, long championship and obviously they’ve taken a reasonဣable chunk of points today.

“I didn’t really understand Mercedes race today, it was a hugely conservative race by George, to give up so much time and then go so fast at the end of the race, it d♚idn’t really make a lot of sense.

"But I don’t think it would’ve changed…they weren’t going to overt𒀰ake anybody, it was just a very defeatist race to try and defend fifth.”

Horner also downplayed comments made by a frustrated Verstappen throughout the Mꩲonaco weekend.

“Listen to Max's comments over the last 10 years. He's just very direct, he's🌱 very forthrighಌt and it just focuses everyone,” he said.

“There was a very good ✨debrief yesterday, following qualifying were we really dug into right, what exactly is the sensation from the driver. 

“He put a big🥂 effort into spending the time with the engineers yesterday evening. There's no silver bullet, it's just about work🎐ing hard and understanding it.”

Commenting on his race, Russell said: ”It was a long, old race, a strange race. The fi🔯rst 30 laps we were🌞 tootling around.

"When Max pitted I put my foot down and it was only afterwards I realised how much we closed the gap on the Ferrari and McLarens. I waᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs real🦩ly pleased about that.

"Max put me under a bit of pressu💜re but it was pretty under control.

"When the red flag came out, it w♐as frustrating for everybody. The only hope of a good race in Monaco was a bit of spiciness with stra💦tegy but then strategy was out of the window. We got the maximum we could."