A former Formula One driver has accused Red Bull of “using every dirty trick” to prevent Lewis Hamilton winning the world title during yesterday’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen claimed his first championship after passing Hamilton on the final lap of the race, following a contentious restart.
Mercedes has flagged its intention to appeal the result, arguing the safety car was withdrawn incorrectly.
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But Sebastian Bourdais, who drove for Red Bull’s junior team when it was known as Toro Rosso, has highlighted an earlier incident in the race, which he says showed “zero sportsmanship”.
That occurred on lap 20, when Hamilton, who had stopped for tyres, came up to pass Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, who had not pitted.
Perez was leading the race, with Hamilton second and Verstappen third, eight seconds adrift of the Mercedes.
As Hamilton passed Perez on the back straight, the Mexican driver re-passed Hamilton and held him up for another lap, allowing Verstappen to close to within two seconds of his title rival.
“That’s exactly what we expected to happen,” Martin Brundle said on Sky Sports.
“Great team play.”
Hamilton saw things differently, complaining on the team radio about Perez.
“That’s some dangerous driving,” he said.
As soon as Hamilton passed Perez for good, the Red Bull driver moved over to let Verstappen by, and then headed for the pits.
“Checo is a legend,” Verstappen said to his team.
Bourdais, who won four straight Champ Car titles from 2004-07, took exception to a social media post from F1 journalist Will Buxton, who praised “an incredible piece of defensive driving from Perez”.
“I thought you loved racing, that was BS,” Bourdais wrote.
“I can’t begin to understand how Perez can be happy with himself and how people applaud him for what he did.
“Purposely slowing down and using every dirty trick to impede Hamilton.
“Zero sportsmanship, from the whole team really.”
Perez’s driving was perfectly legal, given he was battling Hamilton for the lead of the race at the time, even though he was yet to pit.
The drama prompted an exchange on the radio between Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and race director Michael Masi, with Wolff asking the Australian to pull Red Bull into line.
https://twitter.com/Max33Verstappen/status/1470115244160991232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“Michael, it’s a bit dangerous, can you warn them?” Wolff said.
“So far they’re racing, Toto, hard racing,” was the response from Masi.
Verstappen tweeted his support for Perez after the race, describing him as “an animal”.
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