Max Verstappen closed in on teammate Perez and passed him for the lಞead on Lap 15 after Perez was instructed not to fight the reigning world champion for position. 

V𓄧erstappen eased to a comfortable victory following Charles Leclerc’s retirement to lead a Red Bull 1-2 in Baku and move into a commanding position in the world championship, 21 points clear of Perez. 

It marked the second time in thr♏ee races that Perez has been told to let Verstappen by, af𝐆ter they swapped places at the Spanish Grand Prix. 

Asked by mahbx.com if Red Bull would continue to use team orders or allow their drivers to fight, Horner replied𓃲: “I think today wasn’t strict♛ly team orders. 

“It was just a question of you’veꦍ got a faster car and a slower car and Max had a significant pace advantage on Checo at that point and Checo had quite heavy graining on hi🔯s tyres. 

“So it was a question of ‘guys, let’s not put each other against the pit wall her🐻e if one car is quicker, concede and let’s focus on getting the best result for the team.’”

Horner admitted that the memory of Verstappen and then teammate Daniel Ricciardo’s crash at the 2018 Az🍷erbaijan Grand Prix had been playing on the team’s mind. 

“The pace difference between the two drivers was so significant,” Horner added. “We’d discu♉ssed it this morning that if you are racing, just give each other space and they did that today. 

“2018 isn’t too ꦦfar away at the ba💯ck of our minds. So it was very important that the drivers, at this stage of the championship, are fair with each other because the priority is to maximise the points against Ferrari. 

“We know they’ve got a very quick car at the moment and we’ve seen how quickly things can turn 😼around, so as a team we need to prioritise that.” 

A♐fter the race, Perez accepted that Red Bull’s call was the right one given he was struggling to match Verst🐠appen’s pace during the opening stint. 

"Max was a lot stronger today,” the Mexican conceded. “It was a good team result. It was the right call by 🌳the team because, at that time, Max was further ahead. 

“In this place, anything can happen but we managed a 1-2 whi꧋ch ꧅is a great team result.” 

Horner prai✤sed Perez’s maturity for understanding and put his early pace struggles down to rear degradation that Red Bull suspects was exacerbated by his qualifying set-up. 

“I think Checo, he’s a 🍨mature guy and he gets th🐬e bigger picture and that it’s a long championship,” Horner said. 

“He’s in the f🌌orm of his career off the back of Monaco and his qualifying performance yesterday. 

“I think maybe, with the benefit of hindsight coming into this weekend, perhaps there was too much weight put be𒁏hind his qualifying set-up with the rear deg that he experienced.&🌳nbsp;

“So that’s something to look at because Max was certainly in better shape in t🐻he race than Checo was at the back end of that first stint.”