adminSergio Perez deleted a tweet after sending a major title warning to team-mate Max Verstappen. The Mexican claimed he hoped to battle Verstappen for the crown after taking victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
However, the message was later deleted with a new post removing his ambitions. The message read: “It was harder than I thought bit in the end I am happy to achieve my fifth victory in F1. We are going to keep pushing very hard, I want to be a champion.”
The statement was posted as Perez won in Jeddah but was soon removed and re-uploaded. Five hours later, a new message was posted featuring a similar slogan but without the phrase ‘I want to be a champion’.
It comes amid fears of rising tension in the Red Bull camp with the two almost clashing in the cool-down room after the race. Perez appeared angry when he learned Verstappen had seemingly ignored a team request to beat his fastest lap.
Moments before the podium, Perez approached Verstappen to ask why the Dutchman had recorded a quicker time even though the team had demanded they stay at a certain pace. Perez asked: “Weren’t you told to keep the pace?”
However, Verstappen defended his decision, replying: “1.33.0, yes. In the end, I asked what the fastest lap was and it was not much faster than we had already driven.”
Perez responded: “That was the information I had and that’s why I didn’t push at the end.”
Verstappen was dealt a major blow on Saturday as he suffered a drive shaft issue in qualifying. This pushed the reigning champion down to P15 and left him with a mountain to climb on Sunday.
Verstappen came back to P2 but ran out of laps to make any in-roads on Perez despite benefiting from a mid-race safety car which bunched the pack. Verstappen was still not satisfied after his epic comeback as he called on Red Bull mechanics to do more.
The 25-year-old also talked up Perez’s chances to maintain a title challenge for the rest of the campaign. He remarked: “But personally I am not happy. I am not here to be second, especially when you are working very hard back at the factory to come here in a good state and making sure everything is spot on.
“When you are fighting for a championship and it looks like it is just between two cars you have to make sure the two cars are reliable. We have to do better, absolutely – a cleaner weekend would be nice.” – Express Sport.
Online Reporter