Christian Horner revealed that he told Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to avoid battles during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Perez got a reminder on the team radio when Verstappen was approaching and overtaking. The team boss is also happy to "capitalize" on Ferrari's reliability mistakes.

With Perez only 15 points behind Verstappen this race weekend and beating the 2021 world champion in qualifying, Horner gave a clear message to both drivers before the race. The Red Bull boss did not want a repeat of the Verstappen/Daniel Ricciardo crash at the same place a few years earlier.

"Max seemed to have a little less degradation in the car than Czech, so they were very fair to each other. By the time Charles (Leclerc) comes out, there's still more than half the race," Horner told Sky Sports.

"They did what we asked this morning, if you find yourselves contending, give each other space and they did that. When Charles came out of the race, you are thinking about what could go wrong. It was just a matter of managing the race, bringing the car home and capitalizing on those points," he continued.

Charles Leclerc started from pole position, but lost the lead to Perez at the first corner. The two teams were on different strategies, but Ferrari's abandonments removed any threat. Horner says it would have been interesting to see that happen.

"Charles went to the initial stop, it would have been a long time coming. We had an overlap by staying out, we had an eight or nine lap lead, plus the pace. I think we would have been in good shape, but we couldn't see it coming. Unlucky for Ferrari today, particularly Charles Leclerc," Horner added.