Christian Horner: Sergio Perez is in championship fight alongside Max Verstappen
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Christian Horner celebrating with Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez has had a weekend for the ages at Monaco this time. He had topped the third practice session of the weekend, ahead of a Ferrari car which has now looked the better one for two races in a row. While he was not able to out-qualify the Ferraris, he did outqualify his teammate, Max Verstappen.
The race started around an hour late due to wet conditions, and it was a rolling start behind the safety car. The track started drying up very well around lap 15. It was certainly in the pitstops that Red Bull won this race, but Perez’s heroic drive on much worse tires cannot be discounted.
The race result was up in the question for the last few laps, but most of the time Perez looked fairly comfortable. It was definitely a well-fought win, and well-deserved. Perez had an amazing drive and weekend, and it will certainly be a welcome change from having to concede his position due to team orders.
Christian Horner: “Amazing day for Checo”
After keeping his advantage on the wet ahead of his teammate, Max Verstappen, Perez jumped the Ferrari drivers with an overcut (Charles Leclerc was certainly not happy with the team’s calls) and then held on despite absolutely scrubbed tires to take the chequered flag ahead of everyone else.
Speaking to Sky Sports, team boss Christian Horner was delighted and full of nothing but praise for Perez:
“An amazing day for Checo, he’s been on it all weekend. His pace on the in-lap and the out-lap from the wet to the inter, the teamwork, the double stop, [and] both drivers picking off a Ferrari was fantastic. He’s doing a great job, look at his performances so far. Jeddah, he had an amazing pole, time delta to him and Max has been closer this year.”
This was the Mexican’s first victory of the season and his first since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year in June. This was also the first time in his career that he had started within the top 6 in Monaco, and he certainly capped the occasion off, with a victory no less.
Christian Horner made it clear that Perez is in the championship fight alongside Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.
“He is in this championship as much as Max is, the gap between them is 15 points or so which is nothing. There’s a long way to go. Ferrari have a very fast car, they had a better car than us on this circuit this weekend. We managed to beat them here, it won’t be easy at the coming races,”
This victory also brought him to within 15 points of Max Verstappen on top, just 6 points behind Charles Leclerc. He is certainly in the championship fight. The next race is, of course, in Azerbaijan, where Perez had taken his previous victory.
Also Read: WATCH: Mick Schumacher’s car almost splits into two after horrific spin in Monaco
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