Max Verstappen given boost ahead of Miami Grand Prix as Red Bull ‘on top’ of reliability

Chris Evans says Max Verstappen needs to 'be a bit nicer'

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Max Verstappen has been given a massive boost in his title hunt as Red Bull claims to have fixed the reliability concerns which plagued two races this season. Christian Horner claims the team have ‘understood the issues’ and added the team had ‘demonstrated’ at Imola the problems are gone.

Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez were forced to retire in the closing stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix with fuel pump issues. Weeks later, Verstappen was in trouble again with his Red Bull slowing to a halt just a handful of laps from the end in Australia.

The retirements came as Verstappen was running second in the race, meaning the Dutchman has effectively thrown away 36 points this season. Without the issues, Verstappen would now be leading the world championship by at least nine points.

Horner said: “We have understood those issues. The issue we had in Australia was different to the one we had in Bahrain.

“You can never say never but obviously it [the weekend in Imola] demonstrated that we have managed to get on top of the issue from Australia.”

Horner also claimed the team had fixed their issues ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “Yeah, we’ve been working with our colleagues at HRC in Japan and they have found the issue, they’ve resolved it and I believe we have a fix for this weekend.

“It was just very, very unfortunate. [It was] a part that had done tens of thousands of kilometres, without ever having an issue. But, unfortunately, [the issue] appeared at exactly the wrong time in Australia.”

Verstappen attacked the team after the issues affected him a second time in Australia.

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The reigning champion even admitted there were question marks over whether he would finish the race at all as Red Bull battled with reliability issues.

He said: “It’s frustrating and unacceptable. I knew there was a problem so there was always going to be a question mark over if I’d finish the race.

“But these kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen.”

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