Horner trusts his drivers to behave

With the duo having locked out the front row of the grid, and overtaking difficult on the tight Spanish street track, the fight for victory could depend on a brave overtaking move on the opening lap.

But despite the memories of Webber and Vettel's Istanbul clash still fresh in the team's memories, Horner says there is little need for him to interfere.

"They are both professionals and I don't think there is anything I need to say," Horner told AUTOSPORT. "Of course, as in any debriefing, we will cover how they compete with each other in to the first corner and beyond. But I don't expect any issues between the two of them."

Vettel backed up Horner's comments that he reckoned the two drivers had learned from what went wrong in Istanbul.

"Well, I think fighting for position is what racing drivers do," he said. "If you look at the job description, that's what we are.

"Obviously we've been through this many times but I'm not afraid that something similar will happen. You can never say never, but surely I think we've learned our bit and we're looking forward."

With Red Bull Racing having braced itself for a tough time in Valencia, Horner admitted that the outfit never expected to have delivered such a good performance.

"I am really surprised by getting both cars 1-2 here," he said. "It is a fantastic team performance, and it is testimony to the hard work that has gone on in the factory, to get the F-duct on the car and it has paid off with a 1-2, with the cars split by less than a tenth of a second. It is a great team performance."

And Horner said he hoped that the outfit would have a bit of good fortune in the race, as he feared safety cars could still wreck all his team's efforts.

"Saturdays haven't been our problem, we are just due a bit of luck on a Sunday," he said. "I am sure hopefully both drivers can have a clean race.

"We haven't seen a safety car here in the previous two years, so the chances are we will see one probably in the race here. It is important we keep our noses clean and convert a really excellent qualifying performance into a good haul of points.

"All the fundamentals are key: a good start, a clean first lap, a good pit stop and not being had over by safety cars at the wrong time. I think that we are in the best position to start the race, and hopefully we can have a bit of luck in the race."