BRITTLE SACKED HORNER

Dead man walking since message row

- BY ANDY DUNNE

HALF an hour after Max Verstappen had crossed the Silverstone finishing line almost a minute behind Lando Norris, Christian Horner held his final media conference as the boss of Red Bull Racing.

There were no flash bulbs, no theatre, no grand announcements - just a huddle in a corner of his team's motor home.

He was subdued, to say the least. Let's face it, Horner's days at Red Bull were numbered once the messaging scandal broke a year ago.

To recap, it was alleged he had sent inappropriate texts to a female employee but a three-week internal investigation exonerated him of wrongdoing.

In fact, after screenshots of the alleged WhatsApp messages were leaked, Horner - who leaves having taken Red Bull to six constructors’ titles in 13 years - survived another investigation into possible coercive behaviour and was cleared again.