Max Verstappen praises his teammate Sergio Perez for slowing Lewis Hamilton during the incredible battle between the latter two drivers.
Lewis Hamilton was cruising towards his eighth championship title. However, Sergio Perez got a chance to be a speed breaker to Hamilton’s blistering pace.
When Hamilton pitstopped for his hard tyres, Perez got the chance to be the leader on the grid. However, the Briton was quick to recover the deficit against the Red Bull star.
But, a tough battle was awaiting for Hamilton ahead. The Mexican gave in an incredible battle, where he even recovered his lead back from the reigning world champion.
But this tussle between Perez and Hamilton absolutely benefitted Verstappen. As it allowed the Dutchman to slash his deficit of eight seconds to two seconds.
The immediate reaction by Verstappen Verstappen was “Checo is a legend”. However, this didn’t convert into anything substantial for Verstappen, as Hamilton again regained time.
Though, Mercedes weren’t happy with the battle between the drivers. They termed it as dangerous driving, but the FIA said it’s only hard racing.
Also read: Toto Wolff claims Lewis Hamilton can never be the GOAT ahead of Michael Schumacher
Chaos drama on the field– Max Verstappen the champion
The race from here only became chaotic, as a virtual safety car allowed Verstappen to change his tyres and be faster than Hamilton. But in the end, the Dutchman was unable to slash his deficit against Hamilton that quickly as required.
However, after Nicholas Latifi’s crash, the safety car was brought out. But what FIA did was unprecedented by giving a “fair chance” to the racing. Verstappen was allowed to come ahead of all the lapped cars between him and Hamilton.
The 24-year-old in fresher soft tyres easily overtook Hamilton, and became the world champion finally!
