21/09/2015
NEWS STORY
Told to let his teammate Carlos Sainz through in the closing stages of yesterday's Singapore Grand Prix, Max Verstappen's stunned reaction was "no!"
The Dutch sensation, who started the race a lap down - a fate even the McLaren duo haven't been subjected to… yet - after his car stalled on the grid, was hounding Sergio Perez for seventh.
Though both Toro Rosso drivers were on the faster option rubber, compared to the Mexican's primes, Sainz' were fresher, hence the call to allow him through.
Refusing to give way, Verstappen continued to harry Perez, crossing the finish line just 0.614s behind, his Toro Rosso teammate a further 1.41s down the road.
Initially, when asked by reporters if his father, Jos (the boss) Verstappen agreed with his refusal to budge, Max joked: "He told me if I had let him past he would have kicked me in the nuts!"
He subsequently admitted: "The call was to let Carlos come by, but the whole race I had great pace, I was pulling away from everyone in the midfield, I was catching up the guys in front so for me there was no reason to let him past.
"I think if it was the other way round it would be the same thing," he added.
Well actually no...
"I would have done it," insisted Sainz. "I'm a fair man; I saw what Red Bull did in Monaco and said 'look this is the best thing you could ever do: play the team card, let the guy on the newer tyre - which was me - at least try'. If I can't, Max goes through and finishes P8, I finish P9 and it's not a problem. I just wanted that shot, he never gave it to me and that was it."
Asked if Verstappen's refusal to yield might sour their relationship, the Spaniard said: "We get on very well. This is not an issue for me. When we put our helmets on we are obviously rivals. Sometimes, when you put the helmet on, you also have to think for the team."
Team boss Franz Tost was keen to play down speculation that the Dutchman had disobeyed his team and created a bad feeling within the garage.
"Carlos had new tyres therefore we thought we could switch positions," he told Sky Sports F1. "But then Carlos was too slow, he was too far behind and Max was right. He saw that Carlos was not closing up and Carlos could not have caught Perez so we were right to let them go.
"Carlos was always a minimum of three to five tenths behind, if he wants us to swap the positions he must be closer to him or it doesn't make sense. He wouldn't have caught Perez."
Check out our Sunday gallery, here.