Sergio Perez was left bemused by the team radio message from Carlos Sainz after his heated battle with the Ferrari driver during the Austrian Grand Prix. Sainz was already left unhappy with Ferrari's pit strategy, which left him vulnerable to the Mexican in the closing stages for the final podium spot. During the on track exchange he radioed into his Ferrari engineer to say he felt Perez was "intimidating" him. When asked about the radio message after the race by media, including RacingNews365.com , Perez was unaware of what the Spaniard meant by the remark: "I heard that! I haven't spoken to Carlos, I don't know what he means with it. "We don't see the face of the other driver. I don't know. I don't know what he really means when it!"
Perez: We had a proper fight
The Ferrari driver used the DRS zone coming out of Turn 3 to defend from Perez, ensuring his car was ahead at the detection point to prevent the Mexican from getting the advantage on the straight. Sainz also utilised the lapped traffic and positioned his car well through the high speed Turn 6, to prevent Perez getting past. A mistake a Turn 3 when they were in clearer air enabled Perez to eventually utilise the DRS zone to get past the Ferrari for third. However, the battle for position lost him crucial time to Charles Leclerc who was over 10 seconds ahead with a handful of laps left. "We had a proper fight. They were particularly strong, I'd say, in the exit of Turn 3," he explained. "It took me a bit longer in one occasion, I was down the inside into Turn 4 and all of a sudden I find the Haas stopped in the inside, so I had to back off and so it took me probably a bit longer than I wanted but in the end, we got it done."
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