Perez: Safety car influenced the result

Max Verstappen won the French Grand Prix and extended his lead over Charles Leclerc to 63 points.

His teammate Sergio Perez finished fourth, just behind George Russell. The Mexican driver explained that he had received incorrect information about the end of the virtual car safety regime and that this allowed Russell to overtake him.

Max Verstappen (1st): “Today I could attack and chase Charles, which is good news, although it is very difficult to drive close behind another car on this track as it leads to overheating of the tires. The fact that I did so many laps in the DRS zone behind Charles is reassuring.

At the end of the segment I started to fall behind, but this is very natural, as tight chasing leads to increased tire wear. I think our fight could go on to the end, but unfortunately we won’t know how everything could have ended. Fortunately, Charles is doing well. After his retirement, the job was reduced to monitoring the condition of the tires until the finish.

I don’t know if I have an advantage over Charles because of the experience of fighting for the title. Anyone can make a mistake. I feel sorry for Charles – there is little fun in the meeting, but he knows this even without me. There are still a lot of races ahead and I’m sure our team is still waiting for some tough weekends, so I’m not really looking at how much I’m leading in the championship.

We have much more work to do. In one fast lap we are still inferior to Ferrari, so in Hungary it will not be easy for us. The car lacks downforce compared to the Ferrari. Like I said, we’re going to have a tough weekend.”

Sergio Perez (4th): “Difficult race. I should have been on the podium, but I don’t know what happened – it’s a shame the virtual safety car affected the result. It shouldn’t be, but today it happened.

I received a message that the virtual safety car mode will end when exiting the ninth corner, but it did not end. Then I got a message that it would end for the 12th turn. It seems George got different information and was better prepared for the reboot. Something happened to the system – the mode was supposed to end when exiting Turn 9 but didn’t finish until 13th.

The rest of the car was fast enough, especially at the end of the Medium tire section. I think I was faster than George after eliminating the virtual safety car.”