Red Bull respond to Max Verstappen's Belgian Grand Prix radio message, their feelings are clear

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has responded to Max Verstappen's radio message during the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.

Verstappen won his eighth consecutive Grand Prix at Spa-Franchorchamps, securing victory in the country of his birth in the process.

It wasn't completely straightforward for the F1 Drivers' Championship leader, as has been in the case in recent weekends, with the Dutchman handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Starting from sixth position, he quickly rose to fourth by the end of lap one before breezing past Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on the DRS straight.

Team-mate Sergio Perez could also offer little resistance, with Verstappen overtaking the Mexican on lap 18 before going on to win by 22 seconds.

The most notable part of the race, however, came when the 25-year-old and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase shared a feisty exchange on the radio.

Lambiase wanted the Red Bull driver to conserve his tyres during his final stint to stop Perez from closing in - but Verstappen didn't want to simply accept the demand.

He then asked the engineer: "I can also push a bit more and that we do another pit stop, a bit of pit stop training."

Lambiase bluntly responded: "No, not this time."

The Dutchman did stay out - and even admitted after the Grand Prix that he slowed down as requested - but still continued to pull a gap on Perez as he breezed to a comfortable win.

Afterwards, Horner gave the team's thoughts on Verstappen's message.

Horner, Red Bull respond to Verstappen radio message

Speaking to Autosport, Horner confirmed that Red Bull had no interest in allowing Verstappen to pit and attempt to record a fastest lap, as they wanted to ensure he crossed the line in first position without any issue.

He explained: "We didn't want to get too greedy. Because we won the sprint race yesterday, a one-two finish today, we didn't want to end up with egg on our face, compromising that in any way.

"To give away one point, I don't think anybody will lose too much sleep over it tonight.

"We got a little worried with the tyres - you could see they were starting to open up a bit - and we didn't want to get into too much depth. So it was about just closing out the race."

The fastest lap point was eventually taken by Hamilton, with the Mercedes driver pitting for mediums at the end of the Grand Prix and beating Verstappen's time on the final lap.