Sergio Perez was unable to convert his second pole position of the season into victory on Sunday at the Miami Grand Prix, with the Mexican having been overtaken by team-mate Max Verstappen in the closing laps of the race.
It was a mixed afternoon for Checo at the Miami International Autodrome, with the 33-year-old having initially made a solid start to the race.
He led the opening stages until he made his one and only pit-stop, to replace his Medium tyres with a fresh set of Hards.
This handed Verstappen the lead of the race but with a pit-stop still to make, with the Dutchman having been on an opposite strategy.
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Despite having boasted fresher tyres, Perez was unable to really make any ground on Verstappen, who managed his tyres sublimely.
It meant that when the reigning World Champion did eventually pit, he emerged back onto the track just under two-seconds behind Perez and on considerably better tyres.
Verstappen ultimately made his way past his Red Bull team-mate fairly comfortably, to claim his third win of the season and extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 14 points.
For Checo, he simply didn’t have the pace for the win; however, ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson did share in the closing stages that the Mexican was being fed very little information.
Davidson, who had been listening to the team radios, informed viewers that Red Bull had been constantly talking to Verstappen about the gap between himself and his team-mate, whereas Perez was effectively “driving blind”.
The Briton noted that it was “very odd” for Red Bull to have been so quiet over the radio with Checo but in constant dialogue with Verstappen, something which perhaps impacted the Mexican’s hopes of victory.
“Really strange, listening to Perez’s radio,” said Davidson on Sky Sports F1.
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“They haven’t told him anything about this fight between himself and Max. Whereas on Verstappen’s side of the garage it has been constant.
“We’ve heard it coming through from his engineer, that constant check on the relative race gap between himself and his teammate.
“So Perez has been out there, in a way, driving blind. Very odd. It has been too quiet on his radio.”