When the compliments fell on him from everywhere and those who once hit him for his precipitation and his volcanic temperament no longer knew where to hide, Max Verstappen revived them all together this Sunday in Brazil. With his second title on the shelf in his house for days now, the Dutchman starred in one of the most awkward moments in Red Bull’s short history; an episode that took viewers back to those scuffles that Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber once had and in which the German’s mischievous smile always ended up emerging. In this case it was not a direct duel to take over the theoretical leadership of the team, since it is already more than clear who is in charge, a circumstance that makes it even more difficult to understand what happened.
With the race at Interlagos about to end, Red Bull asked Verstappen, who was running sixth, to let himself be overtaken by Checo Pérez, who was running seventh. With this maneuver, the red buffalo team wanted the Mexican to maintain second position in the general classification, which is played with Charles Leclerc, who was going to finish fourth and, consequently, cut several points from the Jalisco runner. One of the initiatives promoted by Liberty Media since the company took over the exploitation of the World Cup rights was the opening to the audience of the most juicy radio communications, between the pilots and those who direct them from the wall. Thanks to that, the fans were able to see the extent of the ambition of the current champion, who refused to give way to his teammate.
“What happened, Max?” asked Gianpiero Lambiase, the Hasselt boy’s track engineer, as soon as he crossed the finish line without having been overtaken by his neighbor from the workshop. “I already told you in the summer: don’t ask me that again. It is clear? I gave you my reasons and I stand by them”, Verstappen released, his voice firm and defiant. Apparently, these “reasons” would come from the accident that Pérez suffered during the qualifying session of the last Monaco Grand Prix, which forced the stewards to bring out the red flag and neutralized the return of the Dutchman, who had many numbers to take the pole and that he finally had to tear up the room.
In any case, the disobedience in Interlagos is significant, aside from the obvious –he is no longer playing for anything and Pérez, the runner-up–, because it comes after the boy from Guadalajara played a decisive role in winning the crown of 2021, in that explosive last grand prix, in Abu Dhabi, where he built a wall in front of Lewis Hamilton that shortly after would be decisive in favor of the interests of his colleague. “This shows how it really is,” snapped Checo, still from the car, while Christian Horner, the director of the Milton Keynes (Great Britain) structure, apologized.
With all that inside, Pérez did not cut a hair afterwards, when the journalists asked him about what had just happened on the track. “I don’t know what happened, especially after everything I did for him. I don’t understand his reasons and I am very surprised. If he has two championships, it’s thanks to me, ”replied the man from Jalisco, verbalizing a bad vibe that nobody knows can be resolved. From the outset, we will have to wait for next week, precisely in Abu Dhabi, where Pérez and Leclerc will arrive tied and where the one who finishes ahead of the other will take the runner-up position.
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