Horner hails Vettel's 'massive' win

With the Milton Keynes-based outfit having headed into the Valencia weekend unsure if its car would be suited to the medium-speed circuit's characteristics, its lock-out of the front row and Vettel's win served as a big psychological boost.

"This is a massive win for Sebastian and the team," Horner told AUTOSPORT. "This was a track where we didn't expect to perform on a level with the McLaren and Mercedes-powered cars.

"To achieve a front row lock out and a dominant race win was very satisfying with Sebastian."

Horner believes that Vettel in particular will take much heart from finally delivering a victory, after recent struggles - which included seeing team-mate Webber beat him in Spain and Monaco, plus that controversial collision in Turkey.

"Yeah, it was important for Seb," continued Horner. "It gets his campaign back on track and it was a very impressive drive from him.

"I think Sebastian will take a lot of confidence from that drive and I am sure there was nothing between them. He has had a couple of difficult races, a bit of bad luck, and it will be very good for his confidence."

Horner did concede, however, that the best bit of news that came out of Valencia was that Webber was uninjured in his spectacular accident.

"The most important thing is that Mark emerged unscathed from a very nasty looking accident. It is always horrible to see a car get in the air like it did, but thankfully he is fine. The car and chassis did exactly what it should and he will be back and fighting fit for Silverstone."

Speaking about his views on the crash, Horner said: "I don't think he was anywhere near his braking point, that was the problem. I think Heikki's braking point was about half a kilometre earlier than his!

"I think the closing speed between the cars was so massive. Heikki was in the middle of the road and it wasn't quite clear to Mark whether he was going left or right. Heikki is doing the best job he can in a very slow car, and the resulting incident was because Mark just didn't have any chance to react"