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Max Verstappen's victory in Jeddah has "injected" energy into the whole team, claims team principal Christian Horner. The Dutchman pipped Charles Leclerc in the closing stages of the race to take his first win of the season.
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After a disappointing late retirement in Bahrain's season opener, reigning world champion Verstappen has officially kickstarted his 2022 campaign. Winning his first race of the season in dramatic fashion against Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Red Bull has put itself back into the 2022 championship fight.
Horner was delighted with the result, claiming the team is now more motivated than ever following Max Verstappen's victory in Jeddah. Speaking about the team's development plans moving forward from Jeddah, the Briton said:
“What I am particularly pleased with is we had probably... We came onto the development of this car later than our rivals. The whole team in Milton Keynes, after the effort that went into the RB16B last year, the lateness of that championship, the compressed time for this car, they have worked incredibly hard. This is just the kind of result that injects a whole bunch of energy into the factory.”
Max Verstappen claimed DRS helped him beat Charles Leclerc in Jeddah
The reigning world champion has claimed that he wouldn't have been able to beat Charles Leclerc in Jeddah if not for the Drag Reduction System (DRS). The Dutchman made good use of the technology in the closing stages of the race, letting Leclerc keep his lead heading into the final corner.
Although Ferrari and Red Bull took radically different setup approaches in Jeddah, Max Verstappen was able to make use of DRS whilst passing Leclerc after missing out in Bahrain.
Speaking about DRS, the Dutchman said:
“If I didn’t have DRS today, I wouldn’t have been first. I think we are still too sensitive for that. And of course, some tracks are easier to pass than others but for me at the moment if DRS hadn’t been there, I would have been second today.”
Ferrari and Red Bull are expected to engage in a season-long battle for the title, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen being the two favorites in 2022. Meanwhile, Mercedes are struggling with porpoising problems, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell having placed P10 and P5 respectively.
