Brazilian GP: Horner says Interlagos race the most stressful ever

Red Bull boss Christian Horner labelled the Brazilian Grand Prix as the most stressful race he had experienced in his career.

Horner oversaw Sebastian Vettel bounce back from a first lap crash, radio problems and botched pitstops to take the points that he needed to become Formula 1's youngest triple champion.

And with Vettel himself having admitted that it had been the hardest race of his career - Horner was in no doubts that the Interlagos finale would stick in his mind for different reasons.

"I can't think of a more stressful race than that race," he said. "I mean, it had everything going on in it.

"From the first lap, with Seb getting turned around - and thankfully the rest of the field missed him. It did quite a lot of damage to the floor and the exhaust on the left-hand side. But then he got himself going again. His pace in the damp was unbelievable.

"He got himself going, and then came back through the field to get the ultimate position. He was up to about sixth or seventh and just kept pushing and getting himself back in there, and then the rain came, so we went on to inters. Then the rain stopped, so we went back onto the harder tyre.

"I think as the circuit dried out it became more obvious the problems he had were affecting the balance of the car. And then we needed to change tyres because basically there was no way he would have got to the end on that set.

"By this point we lost radio and we couldn't hear him any more. He pitted, went out on the softer tyre at the end, and then the rain started to increase significantly, so we had to get him back in.

"He said he couldn't hear what we were saying and we weren't ready for him. And then it was a question of closing out those final laps."

Horner said that Red Bull approached the race deliberately not focused on just shadowing what Ferrari did, and instead reckoned its best chances were by worrying about itself only.

"We spoke about that before the race and made it quite clear, let's not be sucked into just covering Ferrari because the race wasn't just about Ferrari, it was about getting the best result and let's try and make the right calls at the right time.

"I think by and large we did that today. I think the only thing that got us into a bit of difficulty was because of the degradation after the damage to the car and when the circuit dried out.

"We had to stop, and it was too dry for inters, but in a lap or two, it was too wet for slicks, so we had to stop again. So that was the trickiest moment in the race."