Verstappen delivers angry radio outburst after near-miss with Perez: 'What an idiot!'

Verstappen was approaching the end of the lap when he caught Perez, who was running a lap down. As the Red Bull driver prepared to pass his former teammate, the Mexican lifted off the throttle on the exit of the penultimate corner, creating a sudden difference in speed between the two cars.

The unexpected manoeuvre caught Verstappen by surprise, with the four-time world champion immediately expressing his anger over the team radio: "What an idiot! He lifts up at the corner exit. I could have crashed."

Despite the intensity of the exchange, there appeared to be no lasting tension between the former teammates. Verstappen and Perez were subsequently seen laughing and joking together in the podium area after the race, suggesting that the misunderstanding had been cleared up.

The incident with Perez came during a difficult afternoon for Verstappen, who had started second behind polesitter Kimi Antonelli. A poor getaway left him vulnerable to Charles Leclerc, although he subsequently recovered the position as the race developed.

Red Bull committed the Dutchman to a two-stop strategy, fitting a second set of soft tyres at his first stop before switching to mediums later in the race. The decision proved costly as the harder compounds performed better than expected, while Verstappen also struggled with inconsistent engine behaviour and a slow pit stop.

After the race, he admitted that the team had made mistakes with its tyre choices: "The biggest question mark is why the tyres didn't really work, while the harder compounds actually did really well, so that's something to analyse."

Perez was not the only driver to provoke an angry response from Verstappen over the radio. Earlier in the race, the Dutchman found himself stuck behind Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar, who was following a different strategy and had yet to make his pit stop.

Verstappen was running on fresher tyres and rapidly closing on the Frenchman, prompting Red Bull to instruct Hadjar to let him through. However, Hadjar initially resisted the order, arguing that moving aside would cost him time.

The Frenchman eventually complied, but Verstappen was unimpressed by the delay and delivered a sarcastic message to the pit wall: "Thank you guys, really good strategy there, stuck in dirty air... ****."

Hadjar later explained that the confusion arose because he had realised a one-stop strategy was possible while Verstappen had already committed to two stops. The Frenchman ultimately finished sixth, while Verstappen lost second place to Leclerc and narrowly held off Lewis Hamilton to secure the final podium position.

Verstappen's race was further complicated by damage sustained after hitting debris around lap eight, which Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed affected the car's balance and increased tyre degradation.