Christian Horner speaks out on Max Verstappen’s retirement from the Australian Grand Prix after the Red Bull driver’s tense exchange with a mechanic

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has insisted Max Verstappen’s frustrations were understandable after he was forced to withdraw from the Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen had bid for a tenth consecutive Grand Prix victory, but the reigning three-time world champion saw his challenge end after just four laps.

The Dutchman started from pole but was overtaken by Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari in the first laps.

Shortly afterwards, smoke billowed from the back of Verstappen’s Red Bull, causing the Dutchman to slowly return to the pits to retire from a race for the first time in two years.

Verstappen appeared to have a tense conversation with a mechanic after getting out of the smoking car, with the 26-year-old appearing to say the word ‘stupid’.

The three-time reigning world champion was visibly frustrated after the retirement

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said he understood Verstappen’s frustrations

Horner, who has been under pressure amid his ongoing ‘sex texts’ scandal, defended Verstappen when asked about the incident on Sky Sports.

“Obviously a driver gets frustrated when he gets out of a car after retirement,” Horner said.

“I think he has been very friendly to the team and all the mechanics, we are all one team. That DNF hurts everyone the same way. It’s a matter of learning from it.

“We’ve had two years without any mechanical DNFs, which is remarkable.

‘It’s a matter of understanding what caused it, learning from it and moving on.

“It’s remarkable that after three races he’s still leading the world championship, even with that DNF, but like I said, there’s a lot of lessons to be learned from today.”

Verstappen also laughed off the incident, with the Dutchman wondering why three wheels of the car were changed when it was on fire.

“Well, that had to do with the fact that we made a pit stop while the car was on fire,” he said.

‘I thought, “Why are we doing a pit stop?”

Verstappen noticed the braking problem at the start of the race and was overtaken by Carlos Sainz before retiring shortly afterwards

Sainz then triumphed in the Australian Grand Prix, just 16 days after an appendectomy

‘We’ve already had two very good years, haven’t we? I mean, that’s already pretty impressive. But of course you don’t like to see it happen. But it is more important now that we understand why it happened.”

The reigning world champion had confirmed that the rear brake had stuck, claiming it was like ‘driving with the handbrake on’, with the heat eventually leading to a fire.

Verstappen’s latest retirement came thanks to a fuel leak during the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.

Since then, he and Red Bull have been flawless as they have dominated the last two championships.

That dominance carried over to the start of this season with back-to-back wins.

There were a number of other notable retirements, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell also failing to finish in Melbourne.

It was the first time neither Hamilton nor Verstappen had finished a race since colliding at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

Sainz ultimately emerged victorious in Melbourne, with the Spaniard closing the gap in the overall standings to four points.