Sergio Perez has revealed that a comment he made over the radio to Christian Horner after qualifying last weekend “was a joke”, after the Red Bull team principal threatened not to talk to him.
Perez has often struggled in qualifying this season, with him having recently gone on a run of five consecutive races without a Q3 appearance.
He ended this streak at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he claimed ninth on the grid.
To Red Bull’s delight, he progressed to Q3 at the Belgian Grand Prix as well, where he went on to qualify in third.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
After his final hot lap, Perez weirdly said to Horner over the radio “you will talk to me now”, something the 33-year-old has since explained the reasoning of.
“Ah, you will talk to me now,” Perez said after being congratulated by Horner.
“I will talk to you. I said to you top five, mate. You’ve blitzed it,” Horner said.
Perez revealed after Sunday’s race – where he finished second – that Horner informed the driver that he wouldn’t speak to him if he failed to qualify in the top five.
The Mexican was asked about the radio conversation, where he admitted that Horner kept “talking” following qualifying.
“It was a joke,” revealed Perez.
“He [Horner] came before qualifying and said ‘if you’re not in the top three, I will not talk to you the rest of the weekend’.
“So he was talking to me the rest of the weekend.”
After qualifying, Perez went on retire from Saturday’s sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps, following a collision with Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton veered into the side of the Mexican and pierced a hole in his sidepod, causing a significant decrease in performance.
Red Bull opted to retire his car from the race, much to his frustration.
READ: Lewis Hamilton limits Max Verstappen celebrations
He went on to lead the early stages of Sunday’s race, due to Max Verstappen having started in sixth.
The Mexican ended up finishing second behind the reigning World Champion, as the Dutchman breezed past on Lap 17.
Perez ended up finishing 22 seconds behind his team-mate, after not having the same pace.