Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen has responded to claims by Sergio Perez that the Mexican was given different information to the Dutchman in the closing laps of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, something he disagrees with.
Verstappen’s fastest lap attempt on the final lap at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit has been a talking point ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, with both Verstappen and Checo having been asked about it.
Perez, of course, claimed victory in Saudi Arabia and demonstrated that he has got the potential to challenge for the Drivers’ Championship, whilst Verstappen had to settle for second.
Second place was still a solid result for the 25-year-old given that he started the race from 15th, after suffering a driveshaft failure during qualifying.
READ: Red Bull clearly miss ‘friend to animals’ Sebastian Vettel
Verstappen breezed through the field and was up to P2 by 50-percent race distance; however, he was five-seconds behind his team-mate.
Perez managed his lead well and never really looked in danger of being challenged by the double World Champion, who ultimately responded by snatching the fastest lap from the 33-year-old on the final lap.
By claiming the fastest lap, Verstappen leads the championship by just a point from his team-mate, highlighting how close it could be between the Red Bull duo this year.
Perez wasn’t happy to see that Verstappen had set the fastest lap and blamed it on “miscommunication” between the team and the drivers; however, he’s since revealed ahead of this weekend that everything is all good now following talks.
Verstappen, though, disagrees with Perez’s claim that there were communication issues with the team and added that the same happened in Bahrain.
“That was no miscommunication,” Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365.
“The same thing was also asked in Bahrain, but the other way around. In the end from our side there was no more talk about it.”
READ: Nikita Mazepin’s father linked to new Formula 1 team
Verstappen directly responded to Perez’s claim of “miscommunication” and simply admitted that “it wasn’t”.
“Yes, but if you look back on the first two (race) weekends, it wasn’t. We didn’t have any additional explanation either,” Verstappen responded.
“The positive thing is that our car is very competitive and that’s what is required to challenge for championships.”