Christian Horner insists Max Verstappen is making “a key difference” as Red Bull manages to stay ahead of the competition.

The world champion outfit, who are eyeing a fourth straight driver’s title with the Dutchman, sit top of both standings after another victory in Barcelona last time out. Verstappen took the top step ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.

The McLarens especially have proved to be Red Bull’s biggest competitors in recent weeks with Mercedes also enjoying a renaissance. Verstappen began second at Sunday’s Grand Prix before being overtaken by George Russell in the early stages.

Some swift overtaking, impressive tyre management and good strategy decisions ensured the world champion was able to hold off Norris’ late charge, with the Brit bemoaning the fact he couldn’t take a second victory of the season as Horner paid tribute to his driver.

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The Red Bull boss said: “He (Verstappen) pushed hard on that first lap or two to get the pass on George, as soon as the DRS opened, then immediately got into managing tyres and was able to build out a gap reasonably comfortably in that first stint, at that point we decided to go for an optimum race in terms of strategy in our stop laps, McLaren obviously extended, so they had an offset.

“So you look and think nine seconds is pretty decent but you know that the tyre offset six laps on Mediums and three or four on the Soft, those gaps come back at you pretty quickly. So today was about not making any mistakes, Max drove a perfect race, [with] well-executed pit stops.

He went on to discuss how Verstappen continues to mature with his small qualities helping him to win competitive races: “He’s always been fantastic under pressure, last year was a unicorn year and now it’s more normal year. It’s not normal to win all the races all the time and we’re having to fight very very hard for them, and Max is making a key difference.

Christian Horner has hailed his driver’s quality ( 
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“We know where we need to improve, we’re getting a better understanding of where our strengths and weaknesses are. And we’re doing enough at the moment to keep growing that championship lead.”

Norris is now sitting second in the championship after his impressive run of results and maintained he could have no complaints about finish runner-up to Verstappen.

“It wasn’t the best start but it wasn’t a bad start,” he said. “Nowadays when it’s so close. One or two metres makes the difference between winning a race or not winning. A shame. Such a small margin cost us. It was a good race apart from that. From Turn Two onwards, it was pretty much perfect. Can’t complain but I lost too much at the beginning.”