“Max Verstappen has to thank Sergio Perez for the win” – Former world champion thinks Perez was MVP of Azerbaijan GP

Max Verstappen won the Azerbaijan GP as he took over his teammate Sergio Perez and benefitted from Ferrari’s double DNF.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed victory at the Baku City Circuit extending his lead in the championship standings.

The Dutchman was surely quicker than his teammate Sergio Perez in Baku, but former two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen thinks Verstappen did not win entirely on his own merits.

Hakkinen believes that Verstappen got benefitted from Perez at a very crucial stage of the race. In his column for Unibet, Hakkinen wrote, “Max has Checo to thank for the win, in my opinion. Not only in accepting the team’s strategy but also in having a five-second pit stop at a key moment in the race.”

For me, Checo was the MVP in #AzerbaijanGP. Max has to thank him for the win. #RedBullRacing really has the benefit of two strong winners in their team, while #ScuderiaFerrari is suffering with Sainz having a lot of poor luck as well as unable to match the pace of Leclerc.

— Mika Häkkinen (@F1MikaHakkinen) June 13, 2022

Furthermore, the former Finnish driver also highlighted how the results are turning out to be a disaster for Ferrari.

He believes the full focus of the Maranello-based team in the future needs to be on solving the reliability problems.

With every mistake that Ferrari makes, Red bull is ready to take advantage and use it as an opportunity to increase the gap.

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Sergio Perez and Verstappen’s swap were not strict team orders

The Red Bull F1 team came under a lot of fire after it asked Perez to not put up a fight with Verstappen who had comfortably overtaken him for the lead in Baku.

Many saw the strategy call of the Milton-Keynes-based team as a calculated move to favour championship leader Verstappen. However, team boss Christian Horner does not think that this was the case.

“I think today wasn’t strictly team orders,” explained Horner. “It was just a question of you’ve got simply a faster car and a slower car.”

“Max had a significant pace advantage on Checo at that point, who had quite heavy graining on his rear tyres. So it’s just a question of guys, let’s not put each other against the pit wall here. If one car is quicker, you know, concede, and let’s focus on getting the best result for the team.”

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