Horner: Vettel's pole vital for win

The 21-year-old dominated the Silverstone event, having capitalised on his qualifying performance and finishing 15s ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber.

"I think Sebastian had effectively delivered a stunning performance yesterday on the heavier fuel and effectively being longer always gives you the priority, or the preferable strategy," said Horner.

"So basically Sebastian went a long way to winning this race yesterday during qualifying."

Despite the margin of victory Horner says the team must keep pushing the development of what is being dubbed the RB5-B - introduced this weekend - if they are to catch Brawn in the world championship title race.

"The team is doing a great job," he said. "We are putting performance on the car every weekend, and I don't see any reason why we can't keep the momentum up going into the future races."

Asked whether he thought Red Bull was now ahead of Brawn in terms of development, he replied: "Well we haven't overtaken them in the points yet so when we've overtaken them in the points then yes."

Horner also revealed that he had derived a great deal of personal pride from watching his team score a one-two victory at his home track.

"For the team, as the local race, for us it's a fantastic feeling," he said. "Let's not forget that this team had never scored a point at Silverstone before this weekend so to come home with a one-two is fantastic.

"From a personal point of view, I won the support race here three years in succession in F3000. I raced here, and the first grand prix I ever came to was here so it was a very satisfying moment."