• Canadian Grand Prix

Horner defends Webber's stance on legality claims

Christian Horner has described Mark Webber's comments as "understandable" © Sutton Images

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• News:
• Webber anger at 'illegal' jibes
  

• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Christian Horner
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Christian Horner has defended Mark Webber's stance that the Red Bull car was legal prior to this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel won in Bahrain and Webber in Monaco as Red Bull ran a floor design which is no longer permitted following clarification from the FIA. Until last week it had been passed as legal by the governing body, and Webber said on Thursday that claims he won in an illegal car "really pisses me off".

Horner has defended his driver, saying that the car had been cleared by the FIA and scrutineers, but said he felt that the issue had been dealt with correctly and would make little impact to Red Bull's competitiveness.

"I think Mark's comments are understandable," Horner said. "He won Monaco fair and square first of all; the car complied with the rules, it complied with scrutineering. Teams have a right to protest if they felt that it contravened in any way - no team chose to do that. Since then there's obviously been a bit of debate as to what's a hole and what's a boundary surface and so on. The clarification - as we expected - is the right way to have dealt with the issue.

"It has been clarified since Monte Carlo, so in terms of the effect it will have on car performance for us - we didn't plan to run it here anyway - it's negligible. Plus it doesn't only effect Red Bull Racing, there was a couple of other cars that were running similar concepts."

Following Webber's victory in Monaco the two Red Bull drivers are tied for second place in the championship on 73 points. Having seen friction between the pair when they fought closely in 2010, Horner said he feels a repeat of such problems is unlikely.

"I think we're in a great position having both drivers right up there. I think a lot has moved on since 2010, I think we're in a good position hopefully to give both drivers the best support we can between now and the end of the season. It's so difficult to predict at the moment from race to race, but it's certainly positive for the team to have both drivers running at the front."

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