Verstappen and Checo Perez’s feud: More about revenge than contempt

There was plenty of drama at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday evening when Max Verstappen refused to let his teammate move back past him whilst in the hunt for world championship points.

Verstappen has already got the drivers’ championship in the bag and the team has already won the constructors’ championship.

All that is left to play for is second place in the drivers’ championship for Checo Perez, the other Red Bull driver. He is in an incredibly tight battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

With only a handful of laps left to go, Verstappen was allowed to overtake his teammate to try and overtake Fernando Alonso and Leclerc ahead, to take points away from the Ferrari driver.

Verstappen was told that if, on the final lap he had not made any progress, he was to give the original position back to Checo so that the Mexican could get more points.

Verstappen refused to give up the place

Having remained one place ahead, Verstappen was under that obligation on the final lap but refused to let his teammate past.

Verstappen’s engineer said “Max, let Checo through please” and then asked after the race had ended “Max, what happened?”

“I told you already last time, you guys don’t ask that again to me, OK?” an angry Verstappen responded.

“Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it.”

Checo Perez’s frustration after the race

“Thank you for that guys, thank you,” Perez said sarcastically after the race,”

“It shows who he really is.”

The team apologised to the Mexican and promised to discuss the incident in the debrief.

Checo Perez and his accident in Monaco

It is believed that Verstappen is angry because of a crash that Perez had during qualifying in Monaco that stopped the Dutchman from being able to complete a flying lap and challenge for pole position.

Perez’s crash came whilst he was on provisional pole having set the fastest time.

Verstappen, his father and his entourage have no doubt that Checo hit the throttle in the middle of Portier, which caused the spin, meaning Verstappen could not finish his lap when the red flag came out and he ultimately finished fourth.

“Perez deliberately crashed in Monaco in qualifying and then admitted it to Helmut Marko and Christian Horner, which Max Verstappen hasn’t forgotten,” claimed De Telegraaf journalist Erik van Haren.

Perez has often been praised for his teamwork to aid Verstappen’s title charges in the last two seasons.

“If he has two world titles it’s thanks to me,” Perez said after the race.

But, it appears Verstappen is angry about one specific incident, rather than actually holding his teammate in contempt.