Red Bull avoided “brutal” Perez call in Texas

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner claimed it would have been "brutal" to sacrifice a podium for Sergio Perez to steal the fastest lap point from Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull is battling Mercedes in both the drivers' and constructors' championships this season with the fight too close to call on both fronts.

In earlier races, both Red Bull and Mercedes have stopped Perez and Valtteri Bottas to nab away a point for the fastest lap from the drivers' title contender from the opposite team but in the United States, that would have seen Perez sacrifice a podium.

“It would have been brutal to pit Checo and take him off the podium because Leclerc obviously was too close behind," said Horner.

"I think for the collective position of the team it was better for Checo to take the points so that is what we did.”

The decision not to stop reduced the constructors' gap to 23 points and, had it not been for an issue in Perez's first stop, the Mexican too could have leapt Hamilton.

“There was a slight delay, it was about half a second I think, but I haven’t had all of the analysis yet. But again, Checo drove another very strong race," Horner added.

“Unfortunately, his drinks bottle wasn’t working and it wasn’t great for him because he’s been struggling with a stomach bug for most of the weekend so not great to lose the fluids on a day like Sunday.”

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