Sergio Perez fumes at Red Bull’s ‘unfair’ order to move aside for Max Verstappen

Sergio Perez was fuming at Red Bull bosses after his high-profile teammate Max Verstappen was seemingly prioritised during the Spanish GP.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

Veteran F1 driver Sergio Perez was left fuming with Red Bull chiefs after they ordered him not to fight teammate Max Verstappen in the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

With 17 laps remaining at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Red Bull instructed Perez not to hold up his pursuing teammate, telling the Mexican to get out of Verstappen’s way and let the Dutchman pass.

“That’s very unfair, but OK,” he responded over team radio.

Verstappen went on to comfortably win the Spanish GP, his fourth victory of the season, finishing more than 13 seconds ahead of his Red Bull comrade.

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But although Perez was “happy for the team”, the 32-year-old made his thoughts on the team’s tyre strategy abundantly clear.

Earlier in the race, he had not been permitted to pass Verstappen and attack Mercedes recruit George Russell despite his own tyre advantage at the time.

“We need to speak later,” Perez said on team radio after Red Bull secured a 1-2 finish.

He later explained to reporters: “We were on different tyre strategies at the time.

“I let Max by in the beginning, then I thought at the time I could go by and not lose crucial seconds to make my strategy work. But anyway, it’s a good team result.”

Sergio Perez leads Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner clarified that the decision was not based on the drivers’ standings and Verstappen’s ongoing battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

“Our responsibility is to bring the two cars home with as many points as we can, and of course what Checo couldn’t see at the time, which he could see perfectly well now, is that he had such a long stint to do on the medium tyre,” he told Sky Sports.

“Max had such a tyre advantage from a team perspective there is just no point in taking that risk with an intermittent DRS, with temperatures raging up and down. So it was absolutely the right thing to do.

“I think we will discuss it and he (Perez) will see the race plot, and he will see that he had close to 30 laps to do on the tyres, which in the end we needed to pit to make sure we covered Russell.

“In the heat of the moment you can understand it. If he wasn’t pushing those types of things he isn’t doing his job.”

Race winner Max Verstappen with Sergio Perez and George Russell. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Leclerc started the Spanish GP on pole position and appeared to be cruising to victory before his engine suddenly lost power on Lap 27, forcing him to retire and return to the pits.

Verstappen’s drag reduction system wasn’t working early in the race, but he managed to push on to claim victory and a six-point lead in the championship over Leclerc.

Meanwhile, it was another underwhelming result for Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, who once against finished out of the points in 12th after starting the race in ninth.

“It wasn’t a good race today. I’d love to find something positive, but it was just a struggle from the start,” he said.

“I was slow, and I simply had a lot less grip than everyone else around me.

“With the three stops, we had four chances on different sets of tyres, but we didn’t have the pace on any of them. I’m not really sure why, to be honest, so we’ll try to have a look and understand it. Hopefully, we can get on top of it as the upgrades we brought were good.”

Spanish Grand Prix results

1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull

2) Sergio Perez, Red Bull

3) George Russell, Mercedes

4) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

6) Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo

7) Esteban Ocon, Alpine

8) Lando Norris, McLaren

9) Fernando Alonso

10) Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri