Sergio Perez confirms long-standing rumour over Max Verstappen fallout

Sergio Perez has shed light on an incident that occurred between himself and Max Verstappen during the 2022 F1 season when they were team-mates at Red Bull. At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Perez let Verstappen by for position as the latter went in pursuit of moving up the pecking order. When Verstappen failed to do so, he was instructed by Red Bull to give the position back to Perez as the Mexican was chasing second in the drivers' championship. Verstappen refused to carry out the order, stating he had "reasons" to do so. Speculation arose that it was related to Perez's late-Q3 crash at Monaco earlier in the year, which halted Verstappen's chances of improving his lap time. When asked on the Desde el Paddock podcast about the situation, Perez stated he would share the story in full when he writes a book reflecting on his career. “That’s something I’m saving for my book - I’ll give you the full story there,” he said. However, the 35-year-old confirmed Verstappen held a grudge after the Monaco crash, which caught him by surprise as he believed the matter was resolved shortly after it occurred. “Max had an issue with what happened in Monaco,” Perez outlined. “He never told me directly, he kept it to himself and brought it up six or eight months later. At the time, we talked about it and cleared everything up. “He had something on his mind from qualifying in Monaco - we talked about it at the next race in Baku, and it was all settled. “But Max is like that. He holds things in until he finally lets them out, usually on the track.” During Austrian Grand Prix media day, Verstappen was asked by RacingNews365 about Perez's comments, and denied any rift between them existed.