Perez congratulates Verstappen: 'He deserves all the success'
For Sergio Perez, the Grand Prix weekend in Qatar was one to quickly forget. Team-mate Max Verstappen will not be so quick, as the Dutchman captured his third world title in a row. Celebration at Red Bull Racing, then, but for Perez the grapes are especially sour.
Perez did not make it to the end of the sprint race in Qatar, after battling with an Alpine and a Haas he eventually finished in the gravel trap. To GPblog and others, he expressed his disappointment. "I was making more progress, they [Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg] had this contact and I paid the price, I had massive damage also on my car.."
Verstappen - as expected - won another world title at the Losail International Circuit. Perez on that: "He has won a tremendous championship, definitely the way he has delivered this season, he deserves all the success he's had and I’m very happy for him and for the team," 'Checo' is complimentary about his Dutch teammate.
Tyres in Qatar
For Perez and his 19 colleagues, it was a bit of a switch today when he heard that there were problems with the tyres and that the FIA had therefore decided to intervene. "It wasn’t nice that we found out through a letter from FIA. We were not aware of any of that. Today I think Pirelli will have more information and if they think it's all safe to go, then there shouldn't be any changes."