Perez explains to Wolff: 'You don't just see that with me and Verstappen'

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff sounded surprised after the Dutch Grand Prix about the big gap between Red Bull Racing teammates Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Especially the 1.3-second gap in qualifying took Wolff's attention. Perez does not seem to be that impressed and has an explanation.

Verstappen managed to outsmart his teammate with particular ease during the race. Perez was the first to go in for intermediate tyres, Verstappen only the lap after. The Mexican had thus secured a 17-second lead over his teammate but lost it in mere laps. In Italy, Perez will try to avoid this downfall.

Perez explains to Wolff

During the Q&A session at Monza ahead of the race weekend, Perez is asked if he can explain to Wolff why the gap was so big. Perez: "I think it's hard to say. We have to look at it race by race at the end of the day. Sometimes the gap is bigger. For example, how it was in Zandvoort, it was mainly getting the conditions right and exploiting everything out of the car. The difference is if you don't get the conditions right, you will see a big delta."

"That's how it works," the Red Bull driver continued. "We've seen those sorts of gaps with other drivers. It's a long season in F1 and it doesn't really matter in my opinion where we are now. It only matters where we are able to finish and then we can summarise our season in Abu Dhabi."