26/08/2023
NEWS STORY
Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff admits that he finds the difference in qualifying pace between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez odd.
Quite why it should concern the Austrian one does not know, other than the fact that some might see it as a deliberate attempt to rock the boat, especially in the eyes of the media, fans and, perhaps, the Mexican himself.
Zak Brown has already said that if Red Bull had two drivers at the Mexican's level of performance the championship would be wide open, and after finishing 1.3s down on the two-time world champion in qualifying, Wolff has added his thoughts to the mix.
"Odd, bizarre," replied the Austrian when asked about the 1.3s gap. "Checo is not an idiot," he added. "We have seen it over these years, Checo is a grand prix winner and multiple grand prix winner, and he was at Racing Point. So I cannot comprehend.
"I mean, we've seen that Max has destroyed every single teammate that was with him," he continued, "whether it's due to his ability to create a car around himself that is just very tricky to control but fast if you can, and that makes those gaps. But 1.3 seconds...
"I haven't heard any obvious explanations. But yeah, odd."
Perez puts the gap down to attempting successive push laps in the final stages of the session.
"The sun was out at that time but it was hard to know how much the track had dried out," he said. "We probably took the wrong strategy with taking the double warm-up lap, double push lap, it took too much out of the tyre.
"As always, you know the best strategy after the session," he added. "We had P7 and tomorrow the main target is to have a strong start and then go forwards from then."
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