The Brazilian Grand Prix was disappointing enough for Red Bull to begin with – then their two drivers fell out over a team orders dispute.
Sergio Perez was deeply unimpressed at his team mate’s refusal to let him by into sixth place at the end of the race. Perez is seeking to claim second in the championship and secure the first one-two in the points standings for the team in its history.
His cause wasn’t helped when Max Verstappen ignored a series of calls to let Perez by over the final laps. Verstappen had been waved past his team mate in an effort to overtake Fernando Alonso, but was unable to pass the Alpine before the end of the race.
Verstappen was no happier with the situation than his team mate, telling his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase he had previously explained why he was unwilling to make way for his team mate on-track. However as the team’s radio messages showed, Perez had been given assurances Verstappen would relinquish the position.
Transcript: Verstappen and Perez’s radio fall-out in Brazil
The situation would not have arisen had it not been for a late Safety Car triggered by Lando Norris’ retirement. Prior to that, on lap 51, Perez was sitting in fourth place, over 40 seconds ahead of ninth-placed Verstappen, who had been delayed by a collision with Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race.
Norris’ retirement initially triggered a Virtual Safety Car period. Perez gained a position from this, as second-placed Carlos Sainz Jnr took the opportunity to pit, and rejoined the track behind the Red Bull on fresh tyres.
| Lap: 52/71 | |||
| Verstappen’s radio messages | Perez’s radio messages | ||
| Lambiase | Okay Max so Norris has stopped between turn 10 and 11. He’s still on-track. He’s on the right-hand side. He’s getting out of the car whilst you were passing him. Virtual Safety Car deployed. VSC deployed. Dash positive. | Bird | Yellow exit turn 10, yellows on the exit of turn 10. Norris has stopped on the right-hand side of the track. |
| Lap: 53/71 | |||
| Lambiase | So Alonso, think he’s going to come out ahead of you, free to push at this point, you need to follow it your delta. Yeah, Alonso ahead, dash positive. Alonso on new soft. | Bird | Virtual Safety deployed. Recharge on. Cancel handbrake, cancel handbrake. |
| Verstappen | So what position are we in? | Bird | Okay so Sainz will be pitting. Expect Sainz will come out just behind us. |
| Lambiase | P10. | Bird | So stay on your delta. Sainz has pitted. You’re staying out. |
| Perez | Copy. Who is behind? | ||
The marshals encountered difficulty removing the stricken McLaren and race control decided a full Safety Car period was required. This closed up the field.
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| Lap: 54/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Okay. Safety Car deployed, Max, Safety Car deployed. | Bird | Car behind is Alonso, 35 seconds back. |
| Bird | Actually he has pitted so it’s Bottas the car behind, a long way back. So Sainz is going to emerge behind you, he’s just in turn two now. Sainz on the scrubbed soft. | ||
| Bird | Strat 10, strat 10. Safety Car deployed. Safety Car. Safety Car’s at turn two. | ||
| Lap: 55/71 | |||
| Lambiase | So keep on your delta, Max. | Bird | So Safety Car’s on the run to four. Safety Car’s at turn six. |
| Lambiase | Strat two please, Max. | Bird | Select mode three, mode three. And B-bal six. B-bal six. |
| Lambiase | So keep on your delta. Once you pass the line then we’ll be able to push up to the Safety Car. Dash positive. | ||
Perez now lay in third but was running on the unfavoured medium tyre compound and knew he was unlikely to have the pace to challenge the two Mercedes ahead. The soft-shod Ferraris behind were a concern: Not just Sainz, but Leclerc too, who like Verstappen had regained a huge amount of time thanks to the Safety Car and had only Valtteri Bottas between him and his team mate.
Behind Leclerc came Sebastian Vettel, the two Alpines and Verstappen.
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| Lap: 56/71 | |||
| Verstappen | How many laps are there remaining? | Perez | Who has pitted behind? |
| Lambiase | 16 after this one. Correction, including this one. | Bird | So you’ve got Sainz on a used soft behind then Bottas on 10-lap-old new softs, Leclerc on 10-lap-old used softs. And strat 11, strat 11. Sainz’s new softs aren’t that new. |
| Lap: 57/71 | |||
| Verstappen | How was my relative pace to, like, you know, the cars ahead of me. Catching? | Bird | 56 laps complete, 15 remaining. |
| Lambiase | So Leclerc on his soft at the time had stabilised at around a 16.6, 16.7. So you were four-tenths quicker at the time. | Bird | Positive on the brakes when you can, positive on the brakes when you can. |
| Verstappen | And like the cars in the middle of us? | ||
| Lambiase | So Alonso was relatively quick on his medium. It was a 15.7, he’s now on a new soft. Ocon didn’t quite have that same pace and then it’s Vettel ahead on a scrubbed medium. | ||
| Verstappen | Why is the Safety Car not coming in? The car is there already for two laps. | ||
| Lambiase | We are still yet to allow lapped cars past. | ||
The restart of the race was delayed as race control attempted to wave the lapped cars through and onto the lead lap. However due to an oversight only the two Williams drivers were let through. Yuki Tsunoda, who was also a lap down, was left where he was, causing some confusion.
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| Lap: 58/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Okay so the lapped cars are now being allowed to overtake. There is nobody behind you. | Bird | Okay lapped cars may now overtake. Got Tsunoda and Latifi to come past, just stay on the racing line. |
| Lambiase | So Max it’ll be mode three, mode three for the restart. You can do that now. Then either mode nine or mode six so up to you on the second lap. | Bird | Latifi behind should come past and then Tsunoda. |
| Bird | Tsunoda will not be coming past. | ||
| Lap: 59/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Okay. So the Safety Car is in this lap. So that’s 58 laps complete, it’ll be 59 once we get going, so 12 racing laps. | Bird | So Tsunoda is a lap down but will not be coming past you. So Safety Car in at the end of this lap. B-bal three, b-bal three, strat 10 and bias offset for the restart. |
| Lambiase | Okay so just watch your bias offset, Max. Currently zero. Tyres on the cool side. Safety Car still at turn 12. | Perez | Sainz overtook Tsunoda under the Safety Car. |
| Lambiase | Safety Car approaching pit lane. | Bird | Yeah copy, Checo. |
| Bird | Recharge off now, recharge off. Safety Car still leading the pack. Safety Car turn 12. 13. 14. Pit lane. | ||
When the race finally restarted the chatter on the radios died down for several laps. While Verstappen passed the likes of Vettel and Esteban Ocon ahead, Perez was unable to repel the Ferraris and even Fernando Alonso, who had taken the opportunity to fit a set of soft tyres during the Safety Car period.
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| Lap: 60/71 | |||
| Bird | Mode six, mode six, battery is good. | ||
| Lap: 61/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Make the tyres last, Max. | Bird | Battery is still good. |
| Lap: 62/71 | |||
| Lambiase | You have DRS. Mode five. | Bird | DRS enabled, gap 0.6. |
| Bird | Perez is passed by Sainz Gap 0.5. |
||
| Lap: 63/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Rear-right peak. | Bird | Mode seven, mode seven, Leclerc at 0.5. |
| Lap: 64/71 | |||
| Lambiase | So eight laps remaining. | Bird | Perez is passed by Leclerc Eight laps to go. |
After Alonso moved into fifth ahead of Perez, Red Bull decided to see if Verstappen was quick enough to chase down the Alpine.
Perez was told to let Verstappen past on the understanding that if his team mate could not get past Alonso, he would be given the position back. This detail was not stated on Verstappen’s radio: He was told only to try to attack Alonso.
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| Lap: 65/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Mode nine, mode nine. | Bird | Perez is passed by Alonso Don’t fight Max. |
| Lap: 66/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Okay Max go and take some points off Alonso and Leclerc please. | Bird | So don’t fight Max. If on the last lap you’re together we’ll swap back. |
| Bird | We’ll let Max go and hunt down Leclerc. | ||
Verstappen closed on Alonso but was unable to pass him before the final lap.
| Lap: 67/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Five laps to go. | Bird | Caution debris apex turn one. Four laps to go, including this one. |
| Lambiase | Could be some debris at turn one, Max. Leclerc last lap 14.5. | ||
| Lap: 69/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Three more laps. | Bird | Three laps to go. Mode six, mode six. |
| Bird | Okay think about B-bal five and reset bias offset for that snap at turn one. Two laps to go. | ||
| Lap: 70/71 | |||
| Lambiase | Mode four, mode four. | ||
On the last lap Verstappen was told that if he wasn’t able to pass Alonso by the final corner he should let Perez past again. He didn’t do so, and was told repeatedly as he headed towards the finishing line to back off.
Verstappen took the chequered flag four seconds ahead of Perez, who was bemused as to why he hadn’t been given his place back.
| Lap: 71/71 | |||
| Verstappen | How many laps? | Bird | Last lap. |
| Lambiase | This is the final lap, Max. Max, if we don’t pass Fernando on the exit of 12 can we let Checo through, please, let Checo back through. | Bird | Okay if Max does not pass Fernando, he’ll you through at the exit of turn 12. |
| Lambiase | Don’t worry about the DRS, Max. Let Checo through. Max, let’s Checo through, please. | Bird | Okay so Max will let you through. |
| Lambiase | Max, what happened? | Perez | Okay. Thank you for that, guys. Thank you. |
| Verstappen | I told you already last time you guys, don’t ask that again to me. Okay? Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it. | Horner | I’m sorry about that, Checo. |
| Lambiase | Into the pit lane, please. | Bird | Recharge on, Checo. Fail 84. We’ll debrief everything afterwards. |
| Perez | Yeah. It shows who he really is. | ||
| Bird | Don’t know what to say, Checo. Safety Car ruined it. | ||
| Perez | Yeah, what a race. We were nowhere in the end with these mediums. | ||
| Bird | We go again next week. | ||
| Bird | Into the pit lane and leave it in P1. | ||
| Bird | Leave it in P1, jump out. | ||
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