Rꦚed Bull believes a brake-by-wire failure ultimately caused Max Verstappen’s retirement from the Formula 1 British Grand Prix. 

Verstappen had run as high as third during Sunday’s race and became engaged in a thrilling wheel-to-wheel batt🧸le with Kimi Rai🦹kkonen before falling behind the Ferrari driver after running wide at Chapel. 

The Dutchman laterꦬ dropped out of the points with a spin𒉰 under braking at Vale and was later seen pulling over to the side of the track along the Wellington Straight after becoming stuck in first gear. 

“It looks like a suspe🅠cted BBW, the brake by wire system we have,” Horner explained. “So that in turn caused him to spin into the left h🐲ander. We damaged the clutch from that point and therefore the car ended up stuck in gear.

“There was a glitch earlier in the race, but it went away.  Once they get the box apart then someone will be able to understand it a ♌bit more.

“It’s a shamꦇe because he’d driven a hard race, but today you coul꧂d just see how exposed we are in a straight line unfortunately.”

"It was quite weird, because on lap oneಌ I had a brake-by-wire issue, the pedal fell to the floor in Turn 3 but then it recovered and everything was going fine after that," added Verstappen.

"Then after the second Safety Car I 🤪braked for Turn 16 and the pedal literally went to the floor, the rear brakes locked up and I spun off the track. We will now start to investigate what actually happened."

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo was left to rue the timing of t♋he first Safety Car period, having made his second pit stop just momen🦋ts before it was deployed.

“We lost positions with the Safety Car and we were a bit unlu☂cky there,” Ricciardo said. “We just haven’t had things go our wa♍y in the last three races.”

The Australian was un🌌able to find a way past Bottas in the closing stages and had to settle with fifth ♛place.

“We didn’t have the legs,” he explained. “I could get within a distance but then I couldn’💫t ge๊t any closer. Just started to kill my tyres once I got close. 

“The kind of grip ꦦI had initially just wasn’t there when we were closer to him. A bit tricky to follow and if we don’t get the exit of the corner they♏ have quite a few ponies.”