'Had little influence to help Max': Jos Verstappen alleges bias in Perez's Monaco GP win

Ex-racer and the father of F1 champion Max Verstappen, Jos Verstappen, on Monday, slammed Red Bull for favouring Sergio Perez at the recently-concluded Monaco Grand Prix 2022, that helped the Mexican pick up third race win of his career. Putting out his thoughts in a column on the official Verstappen website, Jos expressed his disappointment with the team prioritizing Perez over his son, who finished at P3 in the principality.

Sergio made the most of a strategic error by Ferrari, which saw the race leader Charles Leclerc drop to fourth, while his teammate Carlos Sainz was sandwiched at P2 by Verstappen and Perez himself.

Meanwhile, in his column, Jos said that Red Bull returned with a good result but exerted 'little influence' in helping Max to the front. “That he finished third, he owes to Ferrari's mistake at that second stop of Charles Leclerc,” he wrote. The 50-year-old further mentioned that Max, being the championship leader, received blows due to team's wrong strategy, while the race completely turned to the Mexican’s favour. 

'It turned completely to Checo's favour,' says Jos Verstappen

“The championship leader, Max, was not helped in that sense by the chosen strategy. It turned completely to Checo's favour. That was disappointing to me, and I would have liked it to be different for the championship leader. I would have liked them to go for Max, but of course I am not entirely objective. I think 10 points from Max have been thrown away here," he explained. 

Despite leading the standings, Verstappen looked slow throughout the Monaco GP weekend, as Sergio qualified for the race at P3, one place ahead of the reigning World Champion. Verstappen had to abandon his final flying lap after Sergio crashed ahead of the tunnel towards the end of Q3, and was soon joined by Carlos Sainz too. The qualifying session was red-flagged after Ferrari slammed into the already crashed Red Bull.

Sergio Perez let Max Verstappen pass him at the Spanish GP

Meanwhile, Perez expressed his disappointment at Barcelona last week, after he had to give up the race lead due to team orders. Despite being quicker, Perez let his younger teammate pass him, as Verstappen went on to win the race and snatch the drivers’ championship lead from Charles Leclerc. Courtesy of the win, Perez closed in the points gap with Verstappen and Leclerc and is now this in the standings with 110 points.

(Image: @f1/Instagram/AP)