Max Verstappen labelled a “racing machine” after unique dual wins

Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner says Max Verstappen’s unique double victory over the Imola weekend shows he is a “racing machine”.

Verstappen celebrated a double win on Sunday, fending off a late-charging Lando Norris to claim victory in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for Red Bull, while he was also part of the winning team in a virtual 24-hour race.

The three-time world champion combined his F1 duties at Imola with helping his Team Redline squad win the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring iRacing sim race.

It was made possible because Verstappen has a new simulator rig that he is taking to European-based F1 grands prix.

Asked whether he had any concerns about Verstappen dovetailing his racing commitments, Horner replied: “No, because he’s basically a racing machine.

“It’s quite often he’s testing different set-ups in the evening and this kind of thing. So it’s not unusual for him to do that.

"He has won two races today [Sunday]. One in a BMW M3 and one in a Formula 1 car.”

Horner added: “He's had a very busy weekend. I think Max this weekend, and you heard what it meant to him, the pole position yesterday, he really had to dig very deep, and the performance again today was a masterclass.”

Verstappen did not have things all his own way at Imola and struggled with his tyres in the closing stages, finishing only seven tenths of a second clear of McLaren’s Norris.

That followed a closely-fought qualifying session which the Dutchman only just edged, having started the weekend on the back foot after a difficult Friday practice.

“Probably with hindsight, we would have been better running a hard on Friday, just because we had opted to take two new hard tyres into the race and maybe it would have been better to have got the information on the tyre,” Horner said.

“But when you look at the turnaround from Friday into Saturday to get the pole and to get the victory, it’s been a phenomenal performance from the team, but also Max has been incredible this weekend.

“He’s had to work very hard for both the pole and the victory.”