The 2021 title race is already shaping up to be a thriller 🐼with reigning world champion Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen separated by just a single point heading into this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix.

Hamilton narrowly beat Verstappen to vict⭕ory in the Bahrain season-opener, before the Dutchman hit back in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix to leave the title fight finely poised after🤡 the opening two rounds.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton lost out to Verstappen at the start at Imola before being forced into a recovery drive through theꦦ fi𝐆eld after making a rare error as he hunted down Verstappen for the lead.

Horner believes Red Bull can exploit any weaknesses Hamilton may have by putting him under extreme pressure and subsequently capitalise on any mistakes heꦐ 🦩makes.

“It haಌs to be said that Lewis was extremely fortunate, a sentiment I’m sure he would echo,” Horner said in his latest Red Bull column.

“The red flag, which was caused by his teammate, allowed him to un-lap himself after his own acciden𒐪t when he would have been effectively out of the💃 race for a podium finish.

“But it was a very💮 strong comeback drive by him and Mercedes once ag⛦ain showed great race pace, so you can see there is not a lot in it at the moment.

"We wi❀ll try and put as much pressure on Lewis in his title defence as we possibly can.

“He made a fundamental erro🙈r when he went off which is easy to do in those conditions but after Max's🐎 victory, he still leads the championship thanks to the single point he won for setting the fastest lap in the race.

“So, if the next 21 races are as exciting as the first two, then it is going to be an epic sea🦹son.”

According to Horner,♒ the opening two races of 2021 have demonstrated that “marginal gains” will ultimately determine the destiny of🎉 this year’s world champion.

“It’s all go💯ing to be about marginal gains,” he explained. “It’s going to be about who can develop thꦉe car effectively within the budget cap.

“It’s going to be about reliability, it’s going to be about operational incremental gains, it’s goin�𒉰�g to be about human performance and it’s going to be about the drivers.

“That’s what it should be about fundamentally, the two besಞt drivers in the sport going h𝓡ead-to-head.

“I certainly hope we can sustain this level of performance. Mercedes, you can see the progress they’ve made since a difficꦅult start in the Bahrain test. They’re in good shape and they’re not standing still.

“We need 𓆏to keep pushing, trying to find performance and try to make sure we have perfect weekends.”