Red Bull boss Christian Horner has warned McLaren that their drivers could start acting with “self-interest” as the F1 championship battle hots up.

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen beat the McLaren’s to take a dominant victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after pulling off an audacious move to overtake pole-sitter 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri around the outside of the first corner.

The Dutchman controlled the race from there and was able to easily pull clear of the McLarens during a 10-lap sprint to the chequered flag after a late Safety Car bunched th♛e field up.

Red Bull team principal Horner questioned McLaren’s decision to allow their drivers to battle over second place at the end of the race, despite Piastri being on much older tyres than 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris, who pitted under the second Safety Car.

“Oscar had obviously pushꦡed quite har𝓡d early on and you could see he was starting to get a little bit of graining on that front-right," Horner said.

"And so, it was borderline whether it was going to be a two-stop or one-stop. They obvi🦩ously pulled the trigger on the two-stop, but it dropped you out because of the length of the pitlane here be𒊎ing 27 seconds.

"It put him into a world of pain traffic-wise. And so Max was then able to keep running and the deg was super low. And even with Lando in clean air behind, we🍒 were able to manage quite easily a nine-, nine-and-a-half-second gap.

"The VSC came out, and the pitstop was pretty straightforward. Oscar pitted again on his strategy, which sort of neutraliseꦦd him, but by that time he'd used both of his hard tyres.

"And then that final safe𒆙ty car, obviously Max pitted, Lando pitted, but it dropped him behind Oscar, which was, you know, you've got two drivers that are fighting for a world championship.

"At some point, self-interest will always outweigh team interest. That's the conflict. So, they did a good job to not make contact. I💧t was commendable that th༒ey were allowed to race, but you could see it got pretty close.”

Verstappen's second win of the season has seen him closꦑe to within 22 points of championship leader Piastri, who is 13 points clear of Norris. 

A sign of weakness at McLaren?

McLaren’s decision not to call f👍or Piastri to move aside at the Safety Car🌊 restart, which enabled Verstappen to maintain his lead, drew criticism from 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

”They show weaknꦕess. Basically, they don't show the strength that Red Bull are always showing year after year,” Villeneuve told Sky Sports F1.

"It's as if they're afraid to be aggressive in trying to win the Drivers' Championship, and they're afraid to go against Pias⛦tri. It's really, really 𝓀odd.

"Piastri messed up that first corner. H𝄹e got caught out sleeping. He should never have come out of the corner second and then he didn't have the p🌺ace, which was odd. Norris had more pace.

"On the restart, McLaren knew that𝓡 it was a matter of laps before Norris would have taken Piastri wi﷽th the tyre difference, it was obvious.

ꦯ"100 per cent sure he would get♕ ahead, so why make him lose three laps instead of giving him a shot at Verstappen?

"Because Verstappen is in fo꧑r the championship. You don't want to give Verstappen wins. That's more points for him in the Drivers' Championship.

"They seem to be happy with second and third. Maclaren has a car where a good weekend means first and second. Any🔯thing less is a bit disappointing. First and third is fairly acceptable, but they seem happy with second and third.

"That weakness thing. You c🌜an see it also in the strategy. When Norris went long, why do you pit him?

"You made the decision to go long. You stay on the track. Your pace is still good. 𝄹So why pit a little bit early? It's as if you're afraid to go for it.

"They꧋ didn't take advantage of the virtual safety car. At the end of the day, with the other safety car, it didn't make a difference. But still, it shows that lack of 'let's go for it.'"

But McLaren team principal Andr�♚�ea Stella defended his side’s decision-making.

"It was definitely a thought [to swap positions],” he told Sk✨y Sports F1.

"We want to have Oscar having his own chances at the restart. So we assumed the principle if Lando was a♔ble to pass Max he should have been able to pass Oscar pretty easily considering he was on fairly old tyres.

"In reality, if the pace delta was enough things would have taken ca🦄re of themselves. We are happy with how things ꦐunfolded.

"Both drivers are happy, think that was 𒅌fair and that's 𝐆the way we go racing."