Perez defends strategy Red Bull asked him to follow to disrupt Hamilton – “I have done it for my team”

Sergio Perez defended holding up Lewis Hamilton up, saying he did it strictly for his team.

Perez was one of the stars at Abu Dhabi, and a big part of Max Verstappen’s maiden championship win. He played his role to perfection, slowing Hamilton down enough for his teammate to insert himself back into contention

What the Mexican did was superb team play, and Verstappen acknowledged it immediately. “Checo is a legend,” he said, before his race engineer affirmed and called him an “absolute animal”.

It would make a difference, as Verstappen crossed the line in first place to win his maiden world championship. Perez defended holding Hamilton up, and said that although he felt bad, it had to be done.

“Hurting someone in a world championship is something you do not want to do, but at the end of the day, I have done it for my team,” he said, as quoted by the Mirror.

Sergio Perez did brilliantly to slow Lewis Hamilton down for Max Verstappen to catch up.
Perez (front) holds up Hamilton (behind) as Verstappen (extreme rear) chases him. Source: Getty Images

“I am sure that Hamilton himself will understand it very well. I have done everything more than for Max, for my team. These are circumstances in which life puts you there and you have to do it for them.”

He is too good

Perez insisted that even though he held him up, Hamilton’s sheer talent and pace would see him go past his Red Bull.

“In the end, I was able to help him and that’s important,” he said.

“I think those 10 seconds or so that Hamilton lost were the ones that made the race because it’s the windows. If he hadn’t helped in all the windows he could have done that in the safety car. I’d make a stop and the race would have been relatively easy for Lewis.”

Read more: Perez reveals issues with Jeddah track – “Too risky without reason”

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