Red Bull chief Christian Horner has played down any friction between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, after the latter raised concerns over his team’s communication in the final laps of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. After the race, Perez revealed he was told to ‘keep a certain pace’ on the final lap by his team rather than to push on and protect his fastest lap against Verstappen. Horner urged that Red Bull’s plan for Perez was based solely on ‘reliability issues’, with the team eager not to push the car to the maximum in the risk of squandering the Mexican’s race win. ‘I think for us as a team, we were concerned about reliability issues, how do we manage that?

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