On lap 15, he then made his move and took the lead at Turn 1, however after hearing team radio, fans were angered by the events.
Perez was told “no fighting” as Verstappen started to close but in hindsight, it was the correct thing to do.
The Dutchman was clearly the faster driver and that showed once he made the overtake by increasing his lead to a significant 3.2 seconds within one-lap.
And as Christian Horner pointed out, if Perez had tried to fight it, it could have been disastrous for the team – meaning what happened is not necessarily similar to Red Bull events in the past, like Barcelona.
“I think today wasn’t strictly team orders,” said Red Bull’s team principal. “It was just a question of you’ve got certainly a faster car and a slower car and Max had a significant pace advantage. Checo at that point was quite heavy graining on his rear tyre.”
“So it’s just a question of ‘guys, let’s not put each other against the pit wall here, if one car is quicker, concede, and let’s focus on getting the best result for the team’.”
A grid-penalty for Leclerc could come as soon as Canada
The 2022 season is only eight rounds old, but with two retirements in the past three races – all power-unit related – Leclerc is going through new engines like there’s no tomorrow.
An entire new power-unit – his second of the season – was fitted to his car for Miami, but then he retired at the following race in Barcelona caused by a failure of the turbocharger and MGU-H.
This meant Ferrari had to give him his third turbo of the season for Baku but considering the retirement there, he will inevitably have a fourth one fitted which will incur a ten-place grid drop.
For the other components of the power-unit, Leclerc can still use one more before receiving a penalty, but Mattia Binotto confirmed he will need a new engine for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.