Palmer sees tactical play Red Bull: 'He couldn't pressure Verstappen'

Sergio Perez achieved his first pole position in Formula 1 in Saudi Arabia, but unfortunately he could not convert it into a victory. Nevertheless, the Mexican again played an important role in Max Verstappen's win, Jolyon Palmer analyzes.

Just before the safety car came out after Nicholas Latifi's crash, Perez drove into the pit lane for new tyres. Due to bad timing, the Mexican fell back to P3 and had to surrender the lead to Charles Leclerc.

However, Perez came out of the pit lane alongside Carlos Sainz, but the footage showed that the Ferrari driver had a small lead over the Mexican. Perez only gave the position back to Sainz after the restart, but according to former F1 driver Palmer, this was a deliberate move from Red Bull.

'Perez was able to defend perfectly'

"It looked to me like a tactical play from Red Bull to not give the position back to Sainz sooner. Red Bull keeping Perez in third meant he could act as a perfect rear gunner to Verstappen on the restart, and ensure Sainz couldn’t pressure the Dutchman for second, exactly as he had done a week ago at the late Bahrain Grand Prix restart", he writes in his column for Formula1.com.

Sainz himself doesn't understand why the race control didn't intervene sooner. Verstappen and Leclerc ended up fighting for victory, while Sainz and Perez had to watch from P3 and P4 and couldn't attack anymore.