Verstappen explained his decision not to help Perez was due to “something that happened in the past”, with many pointing to the Monaco Grand Prix that same year. Perez crashed in Q3, which caused the session to be red-flagged before Verstappen could complete his final lap.
The Mexican ended up starting third on the grid with Verstappen behind him in fourth. Perez then went on to win the race after timing his tyre change perfectly which helped him close up to Verstappen in the championship.
But there were some accusations that Verstappen felt Perez had crashed in qualifying on purpose to give him an advantage on a race track that is notoriously difficult to overtake on.
