Sergio Perez admits ‘hurting’ Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship ‘is not something you want to do’ but stops short of apologising after helping Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen win his first world title
- Sergio Perez admits he was in two minds over his role in deciding the world title
- Mexican played a crucial part in helping Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton
- Perez’s defensive drive in Abu Dhabi held Hamilton up and helped his team-mate
- It allowed Verstappen to catch up and ultimately snatch victory on the last lap
- Perez admits he didn’t want to ‘hurt’ Hamilton’s chances of winning a world title
Sergio Perez has admitted that he never wanted to ‘hurt’ Lewis Hamilton in the shootout for the drivers’ championship after he played a crucial role in helping Max Verstappen win his first ever world title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Mexican was lauded as a ‘legend’ by his Red Bull team-mate after his superb defensive driving helped Verstappen get back in the race after Hamilton established an early lead.
As Hamilton headed into the pits for a fresh set of tyres midway through the race, the Brit found himself behind Perez and struggled to reclaim his spot as the race’s leader.
Sergio Perez’s (right) brilliant defensive drive held up Lewis Hamilton (centre) on Sunday
Perez’s efforts helped Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen come back to win the world title
Having fended off Hamilton for a number of laps with his defensive drive, Verstappen was able to catch the pair up and set up the thrilling, yet controversial, finale that saw the Dutchman pip his title rival to the drivers’ championship on the very last lap.
As the dust settled following Verstappen’s triumph at the Yas Marina circuit, Perez sympathised with Hamilton for having helped ruin his chances of winning – but stopped short of apologising, given he did it for his team.
Perez said: ‘Hurting someone in a world championship is something you do not want to do, but at the end of the day I have done it for my team.
It allowed Verstappen to get within range of Hamilton and overtake him on the last lap
‘I am sure that Hamilton himself will understand it very well. I have done everything more than for Max, for my team.
‘These are circumstances in which life puts you there and you have to do it for them.’
Perez was wary that he didn’t want to risk a crash with Hamilton but putting his team’s wishes first was the only thing on his mind.
‘Obviously, I was in a position where I had not much to lose,’ Perez told Motorsport.com.
Verstappen celebrates with his team in the pit lane after being crowned world champion
‘It’s not a place that you want to be in but at the same time I will always put my team above anything.
‘It was a gamble because at that point you are just a piece of cake basically when you are after 18, 19 laps on the soft tyres and Lewis was on fresh rubber. Getting him back out of Turn 6 was the key to it.
‘I’m just happy that it worked out because I could have cost him half a second at the time, but I’m just happy that I cost him a bit longer.’
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko heaped praise on the Mexican afterwards, insisting the brilliant defensive drive was of huge significance.
Perez has sympathised with Hamilton and insists he never wanted to ‘hurt’ the Mercedes star
‘The emotions already went up at the start today,’ Marko said. ‘Max’s rear wheels spun in first and second gear. This brought Hamilton forward. Afterwards we saw that we couldn’t keep up with Mercedes in our tyre constellation.
‘Then Checo Perez worked phenomenally. He helped to shorten the distance between Hamilton and Max again. Then it was already clear that we had to choose a different strategy.
‘We therefore decided on the two-stop strategy. Then we knew: now we need a safety car phase. Thanks to Williams and Latifi, it worked.’
