It took him a little over a year to fuel, but now Red Bull really seems to have found the perfect second drive for Max Verstappen. Just like in Imola and Barcelona, Milton Keynes’s team scored another double in Baku, taking advantage of the misadventures of rivals from Ferrari, and Sergio Perez confirmed himself as an excellent sidekick for the Dutchman.
Thanks also to yet another retirement of Charles Leclerc, the second place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is worth the same position in the World Championship for the Mexican, with a gap of 21 points compared to his boxmate. However, after taking the lead at the start, Checo seemed to also have the ambition to try to win the race, but a Virtual Safety Car started at the wrong time, when he had already passed the entrance to the pits, complicated his plans. .
“Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to pit stop during the Virtual Safety Car. If it had been possible, clearly I would have done a different race, because I was in front at that moment. At the restart, I might have pushed a little too much on my medium tires. and the deterioration was quite marked “, said Perez a few moments before stepping onto the podium.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
“We will have to understand exactly what happened, because Max managed to make them last longer. So, there are several things we need to review, but overall it was a very good result for the team,” added the Mexican, who still has a special relationship with the citizen of Baku: this is in fact his fourth podium.
When his medium tires dropped, Verstappen picked him up and overtook him. At that juncture, a radio message was also heard asking Perez not to fight. It was thought that Sergio could take it badly, but even in this case he has confirmed himself as a perfect squire.
“I think the team made the right choice, because at that moment Max was a bit faster and it was a good team result. Then you know that anything can happen on this track. In the end we managed to do it. do a 1-2 and that’s the most important thing, “he concluded.
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