Max Verstappen refused to let Sergio Pérez get back up front in Brazil. He said he had reasons to do it. Speculation about qualifying in Monaco has begun.
“What Tom Coronel (Dutch driver and columnist) just said on ViaPlay is correct,” wrote De Telegraaf journalist Erik Van Haren on Twitter after the race.
“Pérez crashed intentionally qualifying in Munich and later admitted it to Helmut Mark and Christian Horner. Max Verstappen hasn’t forgotten that.”
Speculation accuses Pérez of crashing deliberately in qualifying for this year’s Monaco Grand Prix. Of course, we don’t know if it happened on purpose, but we can see what happened then.
Blow the wind out of your opponent’s sails
Monaco encourages him. Imagine yourself in first place or at the top of the leaderboard. There are only tens of seconds left until the end of qualifying. Opponents are on a fast lap and can overtake you. If you raise yellow or better yet red flags, it’s over. A lap in Monaco in the slowest mode (preparatory) takes around 1 minute 20 seconds. If the clock ticks down, it makes no sense to start qualifying again: no one would have time to enter the timed lap.
You don’t have to crash – it’s a rather stupid procedure, because you can damage the car, although this year the situation is somewhat more favorable with transmissions, for example. Park the car somewhere.
Michael Schumacher was punished for this in 2006. Hamilton clearly suspected that Nico Rosberg had entered the run-off zone at Mirabeau eight years later for the same reason, but no one has ever proved it to him.
The Red Bull drivers didn’t fight for pole position in Monaco. Pérez moved up to second during the third part of qualifying but then crashed. He moved into third place with eight and a half minutes to go. The order on top didn’t change much after that. Charles Leclerc was in a championship of his own, Sainz lost 0.225 seconds to him. But it was close behind him. Pérez lost 0.028 to Sainz, Verstappen then lost 0.037 to Pérez.
The end of qualifying was approaching. Verstappen had a pretty good ride. We don’t know how it would have ended, but it is possible that he beat Pérez and maybe even Sainz. He clocked 18.854 in the first sector, which was the second best first sector of the entire qualifier. But we can also go deeper. The track is divided into mini-sectors. Verstappen led six mini-sectors in the first sector and one in the second. He set a personal best in all of them.
Pérez was also fastest of all in two mini-sectors, setting a personal best in one and failing to improve in six. He then spun in front of the tunnel and crashed the rear of the car into the barrier. Sainz then crashed his car. The red flags were raised on the track exactly 30 seconds before the end.
Third position at the start gave Pérez an advantage over Verstappen and more than a big lead. He drove to victory in the rainy Monaco Grand Prix.
“I hit the gas early enough but as soon as I pressed the pedal I felt the rear tire had no grip and I played with it a bit before losing control,” said Pérez after qualifying. “I was surprised that Carlos hit me. It’s a shame what happened and I’m sorry for Carlos and the others, but this is Monaco.”
