Christian Horner: Red Bull ahead of Ferrari and on target

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the team's target was to head into the summer break ahead of Ferrari in the World Championship, but he concedes that even he didn't anticipate the double podium finish in Hockenheim that gave the British-based team such a healthy margin.

Red Bull was as much as 30 points behind Ferrari in the early stages of the season, but now has a lead of 14 points in the battle for second place.

"Our objective was to go into the summer break ahead of Ferrari," said Horner. "And we have managed to do that this weekend with a 14-point advantage, and a double podium, which was beyond all of our expectations coming into this type of circuit. From a team perspective and team performance, it has been a strong weekend for us, and to have achieved a double podium is a fantastic result for us."

"There have been ebbs and flows but I think that is where we are in the constructors' championship at this stage of the year. There is still a long way to go but the objective was to come into the summer break ahead of Ferrari."

"Now it gives everyone a chance for a well-earned rest for the final nine races. There are some races on the calendar that will hopefully be favorable to us, and our objective is to try to close that gap still further to Mercedes ahead. I think we were on average within 0.3 of a second here. And what is really encouraging is on that final stint that Nico wasn't able to make any inroads into either of our drivers on the soft tire."

Horner said that there are still development parts to be added to the car: "We still have a few bits that we can tidy up on the car this year that are in the pipeline that have been kicked off some time ago, I think there is still progress that is going on with the engine and driveability, and I think that there is some positive things in the pipeline that hopefully can help us try to reduce that gap yet further."