Jenson Button says he is 'amazed' by the dispute over team orders concerning Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. With Verstappen and Perez lying sixth and seventh late in the Brazilian Grand Prix, Red Bull told Verstappen to move over and let Perez by, with the Mexican in a tight battle with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc over second place in the Drivers' Championship behind the already-crowned Verstappen. But Verstappen refused to do so, and radioed his team immediately after the flag to say he had previously "given his reasons" for not wanting to yield to Perez. Verstappen refused to elaborate further after the race, but speculation suggested the Dutchman was unhappy after Perez had crashed in the closing stages of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, thereby preventing Verstappen from improving his own lap time. For his part, Perez voiced his displeasure at Verstappen's conduct in Brazil, saying the incident "shows who he really is", a comment Button found especially noteworthy. "I'm more amazed by Checo's comment, I love it, 'shows who he really is'," said Button on Sky F1 's Any Driven Monday . "It's a tricky one because we just hear one side of it, we don't hear what his reasons are. "It's a tricky one because we just hear one side of it, we don't hear what his reasons are. "It doesn't come across well, and when you hear his comments saying 'no I'm not letting him past, I've got my reasons', if we don't hear the reasons we think Max is being selfish, he's not thinking about the team or his team-mate. "I did see something in the media, I don't know if it's factual, but I think he was very upset about the Monaco Grand Prix qualifying where Checo ended up in the wall. "Maybe that's his reason for not wanting to give the place up to Checo because it hurt his qualifying in Monaco and maybe he thought Checo found the wall easier than he should have."
Button questions previous dialogue
Button also questioned why Red Bull asked Verstappen to move over for Perez if, as implied, his reasons for not wanting to do so had previously been made clear. "Max could have come out of this so well, the World Champion letting his teammate past so he can fight for second in the championship," said Button. "You've got to ask Red Bull, if they have discussed this beforehand as Max said then why are they asking him to do it in the race? "It feels like they haven't discussed it properly before the race weekend as a team and that seems like a bigger issue, it seems Red Bull have put themselves in this situation which definitely is negative marketing. "It's a real shame because like I say it could have been a perfect end to the race. The mistake in the early part of the race with Lewis was an incident we didn't want to see, but to come out and say 'here you go Checo, here's a couple of points and now you're second in the championship, we're going to finish first and second', it's awesome. "But that story is not the story we have."
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