Max Verstappen closed in on teammate Perez and passed him foᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚr the lead on Lap 15 after Perez was instructed not to ꦛfight the reigning world champion for position. 

Verstappen eased to a c♉omfortable victory following Charles Leclerc’s retirement to lead a Red Bull 1-2 in Baku and move into a commanding position in the world championship, 21 points clear of Perez. 

It marked the second time in three rac🔜es that Perez has been told to let Verstappen by, after they swapped places at the Spanish Grand Prix. 

Asked by ltxcn.top if Red Bull would c𓆏ontinue to use team orders or allow their dr♏ivers to fight, Horner replied: “I think today wasn’t strictly team orders. 

“It was just a question of you’ve got a faster car and a slower car and Max had a significant pace adva💃ntage on Checo at that point and Checo had quite heavy graining on his tyres. 

“So it was a question of ‘guys, let’s not put each other agains𓂃t the pit wall here if one car is quicker, concede and let’s focus on getting the best result for the team.’”

Horner admitted that the memory of Verstappen and then teammate Daniel Ricciardo’s crash at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix had been playi🐼ng on the ༺team’s mind. 

“The pace difference between the two drivers was so signi꧟ficant,” Horner added. “We’d discussed it this morning that if you are ꦐracing, just give each other space and they did that today. 

“2018 isn’t too 🧸far away at the back of our minds. So it was very important that the drivers, at this🐬 stage of the championship, are fair with each other because the priority is to maximise the points against Ferrari. 

“We know they’ve got a very quick car atℱ the moment and we’ve seen how quickly things can turn around, so as a team we need to prioritise that.”ඣ 

After the race, Perez accepteꦉd that Red Bull’s call was ꩵthe right one given he was struggling to match Verstappen’s pace during the opening stint. 

"Max was a lot stronger today,” the Mexican conceded. “It was a good team result. It waꦓᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs the right call by the team because, at that time, Max was further ahead. 

“In this place, any꧑thing can happen but we managed a 1-2 which is a great team result.” 

Horner praised Perez’s maturity for understanding and put his early pace stꦅruggles down to rear degradation that Red Bull suspects was exacerbated by his qualifying set-up. 

“I think Checo, he’s a mature guy and h꧃e gets the bigger picture and that it’s a long championship,” Horner said. 

“He’s in the form of his career off the b𒁃ack of Monaco and his qualifying performance yesterday. 

“I think maybe, with the benefit of hindsight coming into this weekend, perhaps there was too much weight put behind his qualifying setও-up with the rear deg that he experience🃏d. 

“So that’s something to look at because Max was certainly in better shape in the race than Checo was at the back end 🔯of ♔that first stint.”