Despite Hamilton’s Brutal Insults, Perez Sets Ego Aside to Take Second Place Behind Verstappen

The second Red Bull seat surely seems to be menaced with some sort of curse. Ever since Max Verstappen walked in through the doors at the Bulls’ Milton-Keynes facility, he’s made life hell for almost every driver who’s tried to go toe-to-toe with him. Arguably, the worst of that fate has been bestowed upon Sergio Perez. The Mexican is obviously oozing with talent, and with experience on his side, he should be challenging the Dutch lion. But for some reason or the other, he’s been having a miserable season in the other RB19.

To make matters worse, no one seems to cut him any slack. In the build-up to the Italian GP, Lewis Hamilton decided to take a sly jab at Perez, which in all fairness was directed towards Verstappen but with the luck that Checo has been running on, he was sure to be caught in the fire. Hamilton was quoted by Sky Sports as saying, “In my personal opinion Valtteri [Bottas], and all my teammates have been stronger than the teammates Max [Verstappen] has had.” Soon followed another dismal Quali result today for Perez as he finished 4 tenths off of pole in 5th.

Sergio Perez finally accepts 2nd driver role alongside Max Verstappen

In light of Hamilton’s scathing assessment of his abilities as a driver and yet another squalid Qualifying performance, Sergio Perez finally let up the façade and accepted a truth we’ve all known for quite some time now.

Keep his ego aside, the Mexican Minister of Defense conceded, “He’s [Verstappen] completely one with the car. No matter the conditions he’s in, he has a lot of confidence, he’s driving in another level.” 

“In all my years in Formula 1, I’ve never seen a driver as complete, driving always at 100 percent, being able to make most out of the car, without making mistakes, and for as long as he’s done it. That’s impressive.”

Read More: Sebastian Vettel Ignores Ferrari Ties to Make a Wholesome Commitment to Max Verstappen and Co.

While Perez has seemingly admitted defeat before the mighty Verstappen, he did divulge the ‘real’ reason for his miseries in Monza.

Perez can’t seem to catch a break

It’s as though something or the other always goes wrong when it’s time for Perez to shine. The promise of the first few races of the season soon whittled away. And now, we see a man riddled with bad luck, or so he seems to believe.

After another underwhelming outing, Perez told the media, “Considering the situation, missing FP3 and going blind [into qualifying, it was a decent session] I didn’t run new [Soft] tires before qualifying and it wasn’t an ideal day, but it is what it is. Given the margins, our preparation wasn’t ideal, but we had a lot of pace [on Friday], it was looking great but unfortunately, we didn’t get to show what we were able to do.”

“These sorts of things can happen, and they just disrupt the situation for us and having issues with the setup of the car. Unfortunately, we also had issues with the engine so we had to change it, so it was a little bit too much [to overcome].”

Can Perez salvage his weekend by getting on the podium at the Italian GP on Sunday?

WATCH THIS STORY | Sergio Perez Caught in the Crossfire as Sebastian Vettel Dismisses All Attempts to Downplay Verstappen’s Dominance