Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has urged Sebastian Vettel not to beat himself up despite a last-lap mistake that cost him victory in yesterday's Canadian Grand Prix.
Under pressure from Jenson Button in the closing stages of an epic race that has gone down as the longest in the sport's history, the reigning champion cracked.
After leading for virtually the entire race, just three kilometres from home at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve the 23-year-old slid wide, allowing Button through to take his 10th career win.
The mistake denied Vettel a sixth win in seven races, and naturally he was disappointed with himself following the event that lasted for four hours and four minutes as torrential rain provided a two-hour interruption.
In defending Vettel, Horner said: "What happened is nothing.
"Look at what happened in the hours the grand prix consumed because there were a lot of mistakes in really difficult conditions.
"He should not be too disappointed. I think he handled it very well at the end of the race, it was just one of those things."
Such a chink in Vettel's armour, however, is what his rivals have been waiting for all season.
But despite only finishing runner-up, Vettel managed to increase his lead in the drivers' standings to 60 points, with his nearest challenger now Button.
Drawing on the positives, Horner added: "When you have led pretty much the entire race, to lose it probably within a few kilometres of the finish is frustrating on one hand.
"But on a day when neither Lewis (Hamilton) nor Fernando (Alonso) scored, when there were so many incidents, at a track where we are not really supposed to be competitive, to have come away with a P2 and a P3, in the cold light of day, is a pretty good team result.
"For Seb to be 14 points off a maximum score, seven races in, it is still a phenomenal race for us and him."
As Horner remarked, the track was one that was supposed to favour Red Bull's adversaries, yet Vettel came within a whisker of another victory from pole.
Coming up, the next race in Valencia is one Vettel won last year, then Silverstone and the Nurburgring are power tracks where Red Bull should dominate, similarly at the twisty Hungaroring where the team scored a crushing one-two 10 months ago.
"We came to Montreal expecting to have a really tough time," said Horner.
"But we qualified on pole position, led for 99.9% of the race, and we finished with both cars on the podium.
"So all in all it was a very strong weekend for us on a day when our rivals (Ferrari and McLaren) could only get one of their cars into the points. That has been satisfying."