The weekend of the Australian GP has kickstarted with the first practice session on Friday. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in the FP1 but he made a silly blunder in doing so.
While entering the pit lane, the Dutch driver went a little too fast and breached the pit-lane speed limit. The FIA stewards noticed the fault and could not leave it unnoticed.
Verstappen was clocked at 86.4kph(53.6)mph while entering the pitlane. This was 6.4kph over the 80kph speed limit. Following this, he was slapped with a €700 fine($763)
To top the sheets, the Red Bull ace clocked a 1:18:790 in the timesheets on the Soft tires. In doing so, he also created a clear margin over his rival Lewis Hamilton and teammate Sergio Perez, who finished 2 and 3 respectively.
Trobled relationship between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
Perez clinched the victory at the Saudi Arabian GP and was leading the track for the fastest lap point as well. This one extra point would have made him the leader in the world championship standings for the first time.
The Mexican driver was managing the pace to grab that last point but his teammate Verstappen did not let it happen. Despite suffering a driveshaft issue and being told to not worry about the fastest lap, Verstappen grabbed that extra point in the final lap.
The Dutchman’s behavior once again triggered the talks of Verstappen denying team orders for his profit. In the 2022 season, Verstappen had denied team orders to swap places with Perez and had disappointed his teammate.
“No miscommunication in Jeddah” – Verstappen
The incident in Jeddah had left Perez quite upset and rather confused over the team’s radio communication, but Verstappen believes that there was no miscommunication within the team. In the immediate aftermath of the Saudi GP, Perez was frustrated but as he arrived at the Australian GP, his stance changed.
He said, “we spoke about it and we are all in the same line. At the time I thought I was not given the right information but now looking back at it, it was all very well played by the team.”
Meanwhile, the Dutchman suggested that these talks resolve the matter with Perez never happened. “That was no miscommunication,” he added.
