28/11/2016
NEWS STORY
In the days leading up to the Abu Dhabi race which would decide the outcome of the 2016 championship, Christian Horner was the first to admit that Lewis Hamilton's best chance of securing the title would be to take the lead and then back-up his teammate into the clutches of his rivals, preferably Red Bull's own drivers.
And that's exactly what the Briton did.
In the wake of Mercedes reaction to Hamilton's tactics, and the threat of sanctions being taken against the driver for not obeying orders, Horner has mocked Mercedes naivety, whilst also taking the opportunity to take a swipe at Toto Wolff.
"I wouldn't have expected him to do anything different," he told reporters. "He played completely within the rules.
"Winning the race was never going to be enough for him, he needed cars between him and if he'd have charged off into the distance he wouldn't have created that possibility.
"He won the race as slowly as he could," he continued, "it's like in a football game where a team might protect from the opposition by kicking the ball around and not enabling the opposition to get hold of the ball. I didn't see that he did anything wrong. There were only two drivers competing for the world championship, it was totally obvious that he was going to do that.
"He didn't do anything dirty," he insisted, "he didn't do anything against the rules and it would be unfair to criticise Lewis for the way that he drove."
When asked if the resultant in-house tension at Mercedes is something that Red Bull might be able to exploit next season, Horner said: "I understand Toto has suggested Lewis followed my instruction rather than his and he should come and drive for Red Bull, but maybe it works better to talk directly to the driver rather than the father."
Ouch!
Check out our Sunday gallery from Abu Dhabi, here.